Government Response to Coronavirus: With Pence in Charge, We're Doomed

[Ali]

The governor of Michigan decided all K-12 schools will be closed for at least the next three weeks starting Monday. Many schools, including the district I work for, decided to close starting today. Some of the comments on social media are horrible. Some parents complaining that schools might move the spring break to the three week break and their vacation plans could get messed up. Some parents are complaining about the possibility of the school year being extended. Some are complaining about them giving into the media hype. Some concerns are legit such as low income kids getting fed. The rest are making me hate humans.

 

From what I have seen so far, most churches are still planning on having services. It is 2020 people! The pastor or priest can record a sermon and post it online. A few weeks of cancelled church could save lives. A local Catholic church cancelled their fish fry they do every year for lent. They promised to start it again after the pandemic ends even if lent is long gone. It is very popular in my community because the fish is really tasty. It is reassuring to see that some are using common sense. 

Edited March 13, 2020 by Ali

[clueliss]

Kansas has case number 6 this one in Wichita.  
 

and this is related to the death yesterday.  Same nursing home chain as Kirkwood Washington 

 

[fraurosena]

So, it's to be a national emergency now. So much for it being a Dem hoax. I wonder how Faux will spin this sudden turnabout for something they call a mere flu...

 

[elliha]

Sweden is cancelling "högskoleprovet", a test that is an additional way of qualifying for university studies. They announce that people should avoid all unnecessary travel even to places which are not currently on the list of places to avoid due to corona. The did not say so explicitly but it sounded like they were hinting that if you get stuck in a country closing borders you are on your own. Given the situation, I think that is pretty fair. They are not closing schools at the moment but they hint that there might be more restrictions coming of different kinds. There are are over 800 cases now but my region is still without cases that cannot be connected to foreign travel but they got one more case today. That case is connected to a previous group of people who are currently in quarrantine. It sort of sounds like a family member of a previously diagnosed but that was not fully clear. I am a bit scared about people at work having been to Stockholm last week but so far they are all healthy so I try to convince myself they are fine. Two of my colleagues have announced that they are choosing to not come to work due to CF and a spouse with a risk group condition (he didn't specify which and it doesn't really matter). I am considering working partly from home if I remain well but I will keep going to work at least 1-2 times a week if they will not order us to work from home due to some things being some much easier to handle from work compared to from home. If I am the least bit sick I will of course work from home or take sick leave. If I have a fever I will take sick leave but if I just get the sniffles I will work from home. Our government has taken away the first unpaid day of sick leave so people should not go to work due to finances and taken away the demand of a doctor's note for leave longer than 14 days to take away unnecessary work from doctors in this situation. Both good decisions I think. 

My church is cancelling all activities targeted towards the elderly and young children but will continue to celebrate Mass. People are instructed to not drink from the wine and to dip the host and to not show up there with a cold as with all places in society. My daughter is in the choir this Sunday so we will go if we are healthy but I am probably going to stop or at least cut back severely on church after this. 

[clueliss]

Delta is parking 300 aircraft

https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/coronavirus-outbreak-03-13-20-intl-hnk/h_880ab4411b837f369c5511561cba7c39

[Dandruff]

The virus is breaking loose in the DC metro area, so it's by Trump's doorstep.  Hard to dismiss.  I'm sure he'll try to come across as a concerned human at 3 PM but am also pretty sure that whatever he offers will be too little, way too late.

Hope he doesn't insult Europe again.  I thought that was especially rude.

[elliha]

5 minutes ago, Dandruff said:

The virus is breaking loose in the DC metro area, so it's by Trump's doorstep.  Hard to dismiss.  I'm sure he'll try to come across as a concerned human at 3 PM but am also pretty sure that whatever he offers will be too little, way too late.

Hope he doesn't insult Europe again.  I thought that was especially rude.

I think most of Europe, our leaders included see Trump as that homeless guy standing in a street corner screaming various incoherent insults to passers by. 

[clueliss]

Disney has halted production on all live action movie production 

 

Now it’s Ivanka who was in contact with someone

 

[formergothardite]

OMG. A friend just sent me this because she knows I'm always on the look out for stuff like this. This  is in NC. A church is going to cancel coronavirus. Do they think it is a subscription they accidentally ordered from God and they can just ask him to cancel it.?! Obviously they are planning on getting a bunch of people together to "cancel" the virus. I promise you there are some sane people in NC, but WTF is wrong with people. If you could cancel it I'm pretty sure Italy would have. 

Spoiler

 

ETA: Since the governor has declared a state of emergency, why is this stuff allowed to happen? 

Edited March 13, 2020 by formergothardite

[closetcagebaby]

I’m in the DC metro area as well and I work in the service industry. This is such a shitty time for a community that relies so heavily on people being out in order to get paid. 

[SassyPants]

I swear, I believe that Trump really  thinks that if people can’t be tested, which means that fewer people can be given a positive diagnosis, that he thinks those low numbers reflect positively on him and our country.

If we don’t identify and isolate those who are actually infected, this thing is going to continue to spread.

[thoughtful]

I just contacted my piano students to cancel lessons until further notice. I live with my Mom, who is in her 90s - I can't take a chance. 

And, me being me, I had to send them the Wash Your Lyrics link, and crack wise about how, for once, I mean the phrase "play it by ear" figuratively, not literally.

This sort of event really brings out the various aspects of the personality, and makes them clash even more than usual. The part of me that loves my work and worries about money fought hard, and is still not happy, but lost the battle to the good citizen and Mom-loving aspects.

But, as soon as I made the decision, I could feel the introvert and homebody in my personality jumping for joy. I sternly told them I was going to take advantage of this to do every chore and project I've been procrastinating, which sobered them up a bit. ? I'm sure I'll be grateful to them as this continues, as they make me less likely to get lonely or get cabin fever than most people.

And I didn't have to buy anything, due to my inner bargain-hunter/errand-hater (I love her!). There were already months worth of toilet paper, tissues, cleaning stuff, OTC meds, soap and hand sanitizer in the house.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Know who has the most contact with people daily? The people who can’t afford a sick day."

Spoiler

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: “Do not go to work, school, or public areas” if you are feeling sick.

About 32 million American wage workers: That’s a no-go.

Calling in sick is not an option for millions of American workers, not just during the covid-19 pandemic, but every day.

“We can’t,” said a manicurist at a Silver Spring nail salon, pulling his mask down to talk to me. “We just have to try to stay healthy.”

He didn’t say why. He didn’t have to.

Our national workforce equation means that the more likely a worker (a pizzamaker, a driver, a day-care teacher, a manicurist) is to come into close contact with scores of people every day, the less likely it is that they will be able to afford to take a day off without catastrophic, personal impact.

“This thing is running amok,” said Anthony Advincula, who works on national policy issues for the Restaurant Opportunities Center and has been getting calls from restaurant workers across the country who are scared they’ll lose their jobs if they call in sick. “In the service industry, one person can make contact with 200 people every day.”

And because we’re a nation that has absolutely refused to make meaningful progress on the rights of most American workers — the Bureau of Labor Statistics says about 32 million get no paid sick days — that one person can’t afford to take the day off and minimize contact with thousands of people every week.

An Uber driver in Queens, a Starbucks barista in Seattle, a Waffle House worker in Georgia, a Walmart worker in Kentucky are all among the hundreds of Americans who’ve already tested positive for the coronavirus.

But, that marketing team leader who speaks to five people a day is now safely ensconced at home, fighting off a needy cat and teleworking while collecting a full salary.

He’s among the nation’s top 25 percent of salary earners, 92 percent of whom make at least $32 an hour and get paid sick days, according to numbers from the Pew Research Center.

If you’re someone in the middle of that score sheet, you make $13.80 or less for every hour of work and only 51 percent of y’all have any shot at paid sick leave.

For the lowest earners — $10.80 an hour or less — only 31 percent will get paid when they call in sick.

“When you look at those people, they are most likely to be interacting with the public. These are the people serving our food, taking care of our loved ones — our children, our seniors, the ones delivering goods to us, the retail workers and clerks,” said Debra L. Ness, president of the National Partnership for Women & Families.

This is about inequity, about the huge and fire-breathing, lava-pit gap between the wealthy and the rest of America that grows larger every year.

And it’s about racism.

“The tragedy,” Ness said, “is that the majority of those workers are . . . women of color.”

More than 85 percent of fast-food workers are women, she said. “About 70 percent said they’ve gone to work coughing or vomiting or with a fever.”

Taking two or three days off can be a month of groceries for a family or a month of gasoline. For too many, taking off those days and leaving the boss hanging for a shift can mean the whole paycheck is gone.

I remember those days. My mom worked through every cough, sniffle and knockdown flu she had because there was no way to replace the day of tips she would lose when she wasn’t waiting tables at the coffee shop.

“It’s economic inequity and racial inequity in our system,” Ness said. “This is how we build bias into our system.”

There is good news, though.

Thanks to this global pandemic, America’s barely legit workforce protections held together with spit, Scotch-tape, campaign slogans and ignorance, might finally get some help.

Because usually, unless the pork belly isn’t seared enough or the iced tea isn’t refilled, much of America gives little thought to the workers at the bottom of the economic ladder.

Now that they can infect the team leader and the whole crew he brought to lunch, we may consider how vulnerable the service industry workers are.

Darden Restaurants, which owns Olive Garden, the Capital Grille and others, announced a new paid, sick leave policy that gives workers time accrued with seniority.

“And we’re hoping all corporate restaurants will follow suit,” Advincula said.

“The quicker we adopt mandatory sick leave, the quicker we’ll stop the spread of this,” he said.

On Capitol Hill, leaders who have always worked toward family and sick leave have been double-timing it.

“We are the only industrialized country in the world that doesn’t have access to paid family and medical leave,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), who has been pushing for such worker rights for years, said at a news conference Thursday. “It’s worse than unacceptable, it’s terrible policy.”

But it’s unlikely that legislation introduced by the House that would include free coronavirus testing, up to three months of emergency paid leave benefits to all workers affected by the coronavirus and a possible increase in the federal share of Medicaid payments to states will be approved by the Senate.

Stunning, right?

At least the conversation is happening.

 

[EmmaWoodhouse]

10 minutes ago, thoughtful said:

I just contacted my piano students to cancel lessons until further notice. I live with my Mom, who is in her 90s - I can't take a chance. 

And, me being me, I had to send them the Wash Your Lyrics link, and crack wise about how, for once, I mean the phrase "play it by ear" figuratively, not literally.

I teach piano through a community music center at a local college.  The university is switching to online classes starting Monday and they have asked us to the same.  Grateful for the chance to keep working but a little worried about keeping the younger kids' attention for thirty minutes without face-to-face contact.  We'll see when Monday rolls around.

[laPapessaGiovanna]

2 hours ago, fraurosena said:

I wonder how Faux will spin this sudden turnabout for something they call a mere flu...

Spin what? What you said never happened.

[Loveday]

The state of Virginia has just announced schools will close for two weeks, from March 16 to March 27, at minimum. 

[Dandruff]

By the time people consider taking a sick day (whether they have them to take or not) they may already have been sick for days.  I hope people can get financial assistance for taking time off, but also believe that everyone other than essential workers should be laying low for awhile to slow the spread of this thing. 

[fraurosena]

First a disclaimer: I'm a hardcore Rufus loving atheist.

58 minutes ago, formergothardite said:

A church is going to cancel coronavirus.

How on earth can they presume to tell god anything? Isn't he omniscient and omnipotent? Isn't he the one who created everything, ergo also the corona virus? And isn't it so that nothing he does wrong? If so, the truth is that god actually wants there to be a corona pandemic. Which means telling, asking, praying, cajoling, pleading for a cancellation is actually going against the will of god. 

[clueliss]

Norwegian Cruises have shut down

 

[fraurosena]

No teleprompter? We're in for a doozy then. Rufus, save us all.

,

[Dandruff]

It's 3:20 PM and still no Trump or his speech.  I can only imagine what's going on in the background to try to get him ready for public viewing.

[47of74]

I just got the alert on my watch that fuck face was speaking and it invite people to tap to watch. No thanks, local ABC station. I’d sooner pour Hydrofluoric acid in my eyes than watch him.

[Loveday]

I can't even watch that sorry excuse for a 'president' answer a reporter's  question; I always mute the TV. There is no way in HELL I'd watch him deliver a speech like this extemporaneously. I'm cringing with embarrassment for our country just thinking about it. Ugh.

Edited March 13, 2020 by Loveday
Grammar mistakes drive this pedant mad.

[WiseGirl]

 

[JMarie]

51 minutes ago, laPapessaGiovanna said:

Spin what? What you said never happened.

Surely you jest.  Just last night both Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham said it during their respective shows.

All public schools in my county are closed through March 27, as well as all schools in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.