New York Governor Announces '100% Workforce Reduction' for Non-essential Services (techcrunch.com) 127
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.
Mental health reasons... (Score:2)
Allowing people out for "mental health" reasons will go about as well as allowing "emotional support" animals on planes.
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Not long back, lots of people were touting that THIS was the way we all should live....
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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
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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
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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.
Provided there's a sunset date (Score:2)
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
Buckle Up. (Score:2)
It's about to get interesting across the board.
Re:Buckle Up. (Score:5, Funny)
Marshall had nothing to do with martial law.
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I remember Marshal Law from the 80s. (Score:2)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re:Buckle Up. (Score:5, Funny)
We are about one week, maybe less, away from Marshall Law.
If Marshall Law is anything like the Marshall Plan that would be quite useful to help speed up our economic recovery. But I think that's a few months away, we should really let the pandemic subside first.
Oh, you mean martial law.
He meant Martian Law (Score:2)
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Well now that we've established that I am the Overlord and Supreme Majestic Commander of the World, my first proclamation is to arrest all toilet paper hoarders and ban them for life from possessing all toilet paper, facial tissues, paper towels, wipes of any kind and from now on they must use only the index finger on their dominant hand to clean their posteriors. Anyone convicted of toilet paper hoarding who is found to own a bidet or garden hose is to be punished to a lifetime of working in a salt mine di
Re: He meant Martian Law (Score:2)
How about we just shoot you in the fucking head instead?
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
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I thought maritime law only applies out at sea.
Re:Buckle Up. (Score:5, Funny)
"We are about one week, maybe less, away from Marshall Law."
They make good amps, but I don't think a guitar solo is the answer here.
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Guitar solo is always the answer. This instantly shredded my coronavirus into dust [youtu.be]
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Well, with NY....sadly, the general populace are the ones that will be unarmed and at the mercy of the criminal element that is armed.
I"ve seen spots on the news and stre
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If there are only a couple of cars patrolling your area, and they get diverted to handle crowd control at Costco, yeah, you're going to have problems...
I'm hoping things don't hit the shitter, but right now the lack of leadership isn't reassuring.
Equally Bad (Score:3)
In my state, you can use lethal force if you feel you life is in danger. I imagined a scenario where a thug approaches my front door with a large weapon drawn. He kicks the door open, tries to pull the trigger, but it jams. He turns to run off. What if I shoot him in the back? The immediate danger is over, but it seems very possible he'
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I'm sure violators will be consigned to the court of Marshall Matters.
GameStop? (Score:2)
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].
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The sell webcams. That people need to work from home.
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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.
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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.
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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
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Re:Slow to implement policies. (Score:5, Funny)
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.
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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.
Re:Slow to implement policies. (Score:4, Informative)
It's always a good time to be a plumber. Unless you have a working sense of smell.
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My incessant allergies were my secret superpower. God did have a plan for me!
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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)
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.
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To be honest, it does seem simpler. I try to think of what's "non essential" and the list isn't that large. Though I suspect as easy as it is to hand wave and call something essential, it's just as easy to hand wave and claim the same thing is not essential.
Noticed a worker with a tool belt going into a soon-to-be-open nail salon. A non-essential business. But he was going in, alone, apparently to do wiring, plumbing, or other construction, which would be essential.
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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.
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The government disaster plans decided this long before you were born.
will they give 100% medicaid with no wait time? (Score:3)
will they give 100% medicaid with no wait time? and maybe force doctors to take it with no balance billing
Gamestop is essential (Score:2)
https://www.theverge.com/2020/... [theverge.com]
Yep, it's essential that gamestop stays open...sure....
Re:Gamestop is essential (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
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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."
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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.
Easy math (Score:2)
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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)
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.
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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)
The coronavirus has already killed half of that number and its season has just begun. That is why.
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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)
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.
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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.
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https://www.aerzteblatt.de/arc... [aerzteblatt.de]
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https://www.aerzteblatt.de/arc... [aerzteblatt.de]
That actually doesn't offer any conflicting evidence other than to say they do not like the RKI estimate.
But if there is no official one such as from the CDC, there is nothing else to go on.
And perhaps that's how the German government wants it to be. There's no problem if there are no records.
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Have you read the last sentence with the actual lab confirmed numbers? The coronavirus deaths are also lab confirmed, therefore that is comparing applies to apples.
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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
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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.
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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)
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.
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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).
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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.
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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
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It's not about stopping the virus or protecting people from harm. It's about getting Trump out of office.
You are aware that even Trump, himself, no longer claims it's a "hoax"?
Overreacting much? (Score:2, Informative)
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.
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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)
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.
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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
Re:... okay. (Score:5, Insightful)
The restaurants are closed already. The subways are there because they are essential services in a place where the majority of people do not own cars. How, exactly, are your "essential businesses" supposed to have staff if they can't get there?
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"Mass transit will remain operational and restaurants, food delivery and banks will remain in service."
If they can't, then why exactly do you need to explicitly ban them? If they can, then why should they be banned?
No comment about "gathering socially" (aka parties) being permitted?
And it's not just New York. San Francisco, for example, is a car city. But yet the same sort of r
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In my town, the local authorities are recommending to not attend parties or gatherings of any kind. All of the city and state offices are closed so you can't get a permit for a public gathering one's that where previously issued have been cancelled so no concerts, fund raisers, sport events, etc... schools are closed and all school activities have been canceled. Restaurants except drive through, Bars, Clubs, Gyms, Court house, are all closed. Grocery stores have limited hours (no more 24 hours).
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Mass transit will remain operational and restaurants, food delivery and banks will remain in service."
You're missing the forest for the trees. The restaurant KITCHENS are open, the dining rooms are not. This is take away and delivery service only. People still need to eat. "Banks" are essential so people can pay for things.
If they can't, then why exactly do you need to explicitly ban them? If they can, then why should they be banned?
"Essential business" are not banned. That sound be obvious based on the definition of the word, "essential." People who work for those essential business need to be able to get to work. Hence, mass transit is also essential.
No comment about "gathering socially" (aka parties) being permitted?
Smart people are not going to do that. Those that do will
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Nobody is alleging a conspiracy apart from you. It's about whether some places are losing track of common sense in order to create the appearance of effective policy in a panic mindset.
Once again, you're arguing with yourself. Nobody said that "essential businesses" were banned. What you're responding to is concerning businesses in general: If they can't operate, then exactly why do you need to explicitly ban them? If they can operate, and implement proper disease cont
Hey Rei -- statistics coming out of China (Score:2)
Rei, I assume you've been monitoring the Johns Hopkins graph:
https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis... [arcgis.com]
which shows that the number of cases in China has leveled off, while the rest of the world explodes, or these numbers:
https://www.worldometers.info/... [worldometers.info]
which indicates no new cases in China in the last 24 hours (while the rest of the world explodes).
Do you believe the numbers coming out of China? I have a really hard time believing that the densely-populated country of China -- which has been making strides towards
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Because they can't operate and implement proper disease control measures. If horses had wings, they'd be pegasi. But they're not.
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For carry out [eater.com], not for dine-in.
You just don't get what "shelter in place" means [kmph.com], do you?
To, *gasp*, buy food f
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I imagine bars and clubs will be closed and restaurants restricted to awkward food service with enforced distances, so the only place you could party would be in a private home and how are you going to stop that? The only means of doing that is with a general curfew, you'd need to call out police officers or the military to the streets and start asking people for proof they're out by necessity. Workplaces are easy to regulate without setting up checkpoints to stop commuters, maybe we'll get to roadblocks an
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Fixed
Depends on what you mean by "need" (Score:2)
The government is heavily intertwined with the economy. And for good reason, when it wasn't businesses would build shoddy crap, kill folk, and then disappear after the damage was done.
The entire US Economy is shutting down, so less oversight is needed.
Re:Depends on what you mean by "need" (Score:4, Insightful)
You know, at this point, I'm not thinking fishing without a license is going be something they even are looking at again for awhile.
If a warden came near me on boat or on land, I figure I'll just start coughing a lot and I'm guessing they will back off.....
I"m guessing that scenario likely won't even come up at all, as that those folks will be doing something better with their time, like stay with their family.
And let's face it...that might be the only way for some folks to get food....
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Vehicle tabs can be done online in Washington.
Hunting and fishing licenses too. Building permit not so much, so it depends.
The bigger problem is that planting season is here, so in the countryside there is a lot that can't be shutdown. Are hardware stores essential services? They need to be here.
Re:95% of government is non essential (Score:5, Insightful)
That's what people were saying about government employees doing working in public health preparedness just a few months ago.
The thing is, this current situation did not take people in the public health field by surprise. They've been expecting this. SARS and MERS were a shot across our bow, but outside of the field people and politicians didn't take them seriously.
Not every bit of alarming news is the product of alarmism. There's good reason to have expected something like this to happen, and to continue happening. That's why American scientific might needs to be forward deployed in places throughout the world where zoonotic pathogens emerge.
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You may be unaware that there are many things which can be put off for a short time with little issue that cannot be put off forever.
For example, if you skip a shower one day it'll probably be OK, go much longer and people will double down on the "social distancing" where you are concerned.
Re:95% of government is non essential (Score:5, Insightful)
"Except a good portion of our mess is because the CDC was cut early in the Trump Presidency mainly in the Unit that seems to focus what is going on outside America and planning for mitigation plans."
The CDC being cut is the least problematic issue. No amount of staffing or funding will account for the following failures.
The pressure to keep borders open when it was clear this was a threat was the problem.
Not forcing people that tested positive into mandatory supervised quarantine was the problem.
Not auto quarantining everyone that came back home from a place with infections was the problem.
The problem is not about how much or little we had of shit... the problem is the incompetence of the government in general and the idea that it can do anything right for longer than a press conference.
There are several leaders that should be prosecuted by their nations for being recklessly dangerous and for taking advantage of this situation.
Re:95% of government is non essential (Score:4, Insightful)
"Except a good portion of our mess is because the CDC was cut early in the Trump Presidency mainly in the Unit that seems to focus what is going on outside America and planning for mitigation plans."
The CDC being cut is the least problematic issue. No amount of staffing or funding will account for the following failures.
It's not actually that the CDC was cut; The pandemic response team was fired.
The pressure to keep borders open when it was clear this was a threat was the problem.
It's not actually whether you keep borders open, they can never be fully closed and trying that will lead to illegal entry, it's whether you test and quarantine those people that you do allow through.
Not forcing people that tested positive into mandatory supervised quarantine was the problem.
Nobody tested positive because there was no testing. This is the fundamental problem. Before you can do mandatory quarantine, you have to build up a testing program. Which is what the pandemic response team was responsible for preparing and is where the problem in the US comes from.
The problem is not about how much or little we had of shit... the problem is the incompetence of the government in general and the idea that it can do anything right for longer than a press conference.
There are several leaders that should be prosecuted by their nations for being recklessly dangerous and for taking advantage of this situation.
There is definitely some truth in this. However its the incompetence of the US government specifically. The Chinese local government in Wuhan did badly (hiding things) the Chinese global government has done pretty well containing things. The South Korean, New Zealand and Taiwanese governments have done really astoundingly good work. People have to start to look at what those countries do right and start to copy them. One of the things they do is respect good government officials rather than continually criticising all of them. Without respect, nobody good wants to work there and we have big problems.
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There is definitely some truth in this. However its the incompetence of the US government specifically. The Chinese local government in Wuhan did badly (hiding things) the Chinese global government has done pretty well containing things. The South Korean, New Zealand and Taiwanese governments have done really astoundingly good work. People have to start to look at what those countries do right and start to copy them. One of the things they do is respect good government officials rather than continually criticising all of them. Without respect, nobody good wants to work there and we have big problems.
In particular I'd give mad props to South Korea. They had their first case the same day as the US but took it very seriously and tested almost 300k people (vs 60k in US) in 7 weeks. They already slowed the rate of growth and just had more recoveries than new cases [reuters.com].
In the last covid thread, someone told me that it's only possible to know how to act with hindsight. Which maybe true for a layperson, but this is why we have (or are supposed to have, anyway) people with experience in positions where they can dir
Re: 95% of government is non essential (Score:4)
A densely populated, heterogenous society that doesnâ(TM)t value âoediversityâ in the slightest, residing on a tiny land mass...in comparison to a relatively sparsely populated, âoediverseâ society on a very large landmass.
Apples and oranges.
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What's the excuse for testing 5 times fewer people? How does ethnic diversity figure into that?
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That sounds like the standing excuse for everything, Kinda like a D student that is forever finding reasons why the teacher hates him or the homework was extra hard for him, etc.
The dense population in S Korea makes the problem much harder than in the sparsely populated U.S. I don't see what a diverse population has to do with anything, it's not like some nationalities are immune.
The NBA and NASCAR took the threat seriously before the Feds did!
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Lack of testing capacity is seriously hampering efforts to trace the illness. That we had not sorted all this out and gotten geared up for massive testing by early March is scandalous, and heads should roll for it. Even now we are far away from where we need to be.
It is not really possible for the economy to begin to transition back to the norm until widespread testing is cheaply and easily available. When someone gets sick, we need to be able to test the 100 most vulnerable people, too, without any hemm
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It's not actually that the CDC was cut; The pandemic response team was fired.
No, it wasn't. [washingtonpost.com] A political appointee quit when the team was reassigned to be part of the National Security Council. That's noted right-wing propaganda site Washington Post there, allowing the man that ran the office responsible planning for diseases to describe what actually happened.
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The problem is not about how much or little we had of shit... the problem is the incompetence of the government in general and the idea that it can do anything right for longer than a press conference.
Maybe we could fix that by having better people working for the government. Let's see, how does that happen ...
Re:95% of government is non essential (Score:4, Informative)
Except a good portion of our mess is because the CDC was cut early in the Trump Presidency mainly in the Unit that seems to focus what is going on outside America and planning for mitigation plans.
This is false
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
CDC was not cut. CDC gets more money now than they did under Obama.
CDC was redirected under Obama to study things like gun control and heart disease instead of focusing on infectious diseases and preventing pandemics.
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CDC was not cut. CDC gets more money now than they did under Obama.
I don't believe that's true. Show your numbers. Here are mine [forensicnews.net].
Re: (Score:2)
First, Trump has nothing to do with the Budget. CONGRESS sets the Budget, and the President can only sign it or Veto it. Just like the PIrate's Code - the President's Budget is just... Guidelines. And usually straight-up ignored by the House.
Second: Here [factcheck.org]
The short version is that the CDC budget is slightly lower when adjusting for inflation. However, some of their responsibilities were moved - just like the Air Force moved some of their space responsibility to Space Force - so the CDC is actually slightly
Re: (Score:2)
CDC was redirected under Obama to study things like gun control and heart disease instead of focusing on infectious diseases and preventing pandemics.
The CDC is a general health organisation. They have always studied heart disease and gun related death and injury. I find it funny that everyone always complains that the CDC was by {insert other guys government here} doing {insert thing I don't think they should be doing because I don't know anything about them here}.
Re: (Score:3)
Well, no. The budget is about $400-odd million higher than it was at the end of the Obama Presidency.