March 25, 2020

At the Empty Road Café...

CF9499F5-5091-40B6-BA72-95C7AC3CEAD8_1_201_a

... ha ha, if you thought the last post was the café! No! This is the café. So: Talk all night.

146 comments:

ex-madtown girl said...

My family and I are planning on getting to as many WI state parks as we can during this odd time. Today we went to Tower Hill State Park in Spring Green, down the road from The House on the Rock. They have an old smelter house and a drop tower that was used in the 19th century to make lead bullets and shot. Very cool!!!! I sincerely hope that people are able to and are taking advantage of this unsettling time to get outside frequently - it’s one of the primary things that’s helping me maintain my mental health, and certainly lifts my spirits! Good for the kiddos too. ;)

traditionalguy said...

Cafe Corona . Cough and sneeze all you want way out in the woods. Just don’t infect the bats.

robother said...

Die Fledermaus would be the perfect opera for the Met to stream now. The Revenge of the Bat. They thought it was a comedy, but for New Yorkers it's turning out to be a tragedy.

narciso said...


It was usually playing on background in book stores in south florida.


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gPybrOxRoT4

BarrySanders20 said...

We're trying different alcohols each night to help stave off the virus. This week: Gin and tonics, Guinness/Harp, California cab (Artemis-yum!), and tonight tequila shots. So far so good. No virus. It's science and the science is settled.

William said...

My gym, the NYSC, is closed but still charging for membership. Beyond this, they are even charging a cancellation fee if you attempt to back out of dues. And even beyond this, they have laid off all the trainers and support staff. I presume the executive staff continue to get paid. I won't be a member longer.....Bill Buckley once said that the problem with capitalism is capitalists. I don't know if that's strictly true. I heard CVS is paying their workers time and a half and double time for ot. Also unlimited sick leave if they come down with the flu.

Anonymous said...

It looks like my goal of retirement is about 2 weeks away, even in this end of times scenario. I lost my 34 year career 4 years ago in a downsizing and I came up with a plan, and it seems to have worked, some by design, and some by just luck. I got a new gig and was able to transfer from DC to Miami a year ago. I'm set to settle on a house in Naples on Monday, which is a few blocks from where my parents live. And not a minute too soon it seems. Mom's AFIB is acting up, she fainted today in the kitchen, and Dad has been losing alot from his fastball the last few months, he was completely unaware that Mom had fainted. Sometimes things do just work out. I'm blessed.

--Rt1Rebel

Tomcc said...

Good luck Rt1; I've always thought 'tis better to be lucky than good!
All the state parks in Oregon have been closed. God forbid, you pass someone on a trail.

Sebastian said...

What have we here?

"The virus death toll could end up being “substantially lower” than 20,000 with most of the fatalities in people who would have died later this year anyway, a government adviser has said.

Neil Ferguson, the Imperial College scientist whose research precipitated tougher government measures last week, told MPs: “It [the deaths of those who would have died anyway] might be as much as half or two thirds of the deaths we see, because these are people at the end of their lives or who have underlying conditions.”

A scientist, mind you, an expert. "Most of the fatalities in people who would have died later this year anyway," "half or two thirds of the deaths we see": where have I read that kind of thing before?

rcocean said...

Its crazy to close the state parks unless its in a densely populated area where keeping your distance is impossible. For the first time, we've gone to the store and seen plenty of Ground Beef, onions, and potatoes. I guess people have hoarded all the meat/veggies they want. All the freezer bags and Glad wrap is gone too.

TP shelves are still empty. Per manager, people are still coming in at 6-7 AM and buying it all. Despite limit of 2 packages per customer. maybe -probably right before the quarantine ends - people will finally smarten up and stop hoarding.

MayBee said...

I feel sorry for the people who have to estimate future demand for toilet paper and hand sanitizer. Figuring out how much to produce after all the inventory gets pulled through the pipeline so quickly is going to be challenging.

Mark said...

Senate to vote soon.

Here's the bill, all 883 pages --
https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6819206/CARES-ACT-FINAL-TEXT.pdf

Mark said...

ha ha, if you thought the last post was the café! No! This is the café. So: Talk all night

Aw, man. You mean we need to repost all our comments???

Not gonna do it.

mockturtle said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Rory said...

Costco announced that it's not taking returns on TP, so it seems a secondary market will be forming up.

Sebastian said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sebastian said...

Since Meade helpfully mentioned the importance of getting flu and pneumonia shots in another thread, it would be interesting to know what proportion of Wuhan fatalities had both kinds of shots, or put differently, whether sick seniors who had taken both shots were less likely to develop severe symptoms and die. Did the immunity system boost help with the Wuhan virus at all?

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

Did everyone die?

Anonymous said...

I finally found eggs and chicken in the store today, haven't seen these items for 3 weeks. Still no ground beef. Here in FL, always plenty of fresh fish. Chicken? Yeah you can freeze it for a while, and TP has an infinite shelf life. But eggs? How can you hoard eggs and not end up throwing them away at some point? Jim Morrison was right, people are strange.

--Rt1Rebel

Jersey Fled said...

Wife found tp at CVS today. The end I'd in sight.

rcocean said...

Mentally ill Kathy Griffith is in the Hospital with "Unbelievably Painful symptoms" and attacked Trump. Why this is in my news feed is unknown. When doesn't every Hollyweirdo attack Trump? If they go one day without attacking Trump - that's news. Otherwise, its just a dog bites man story.

Mark said...

I found that the independent ethnic stores maintained a good supply of nearly everything. Cleaning products were an exception. I didn't check for TP.

The nearby CVS has been low on rubbing alcohol and gloves, but it is always bad in restocking.

Skeptical Voter said...

Indeed--you go on E Bay and there's as much toilet paper and paper towels as you might wish for.

But I'm waiting for the supply chains to put it in Costco and the grocery stores. Won't be long now.

rcocean said...

Every time I watch these press conferences, I'm lost in admiration at everyone keeping their cool while dealing with these stupid, inane, questions from the Press. Its like you need to pass a test to be a White House Journalist in left-wing bias, stupidity, and childish obnoxious behavior. Of course, if Biden is elected, they'll go back to asking softball questions, and screeching at any reporter who occasionally challenging BIien.

Nichevo said...

Dear AA,

Re your post:


https://althouse.blogspot.com/2020/03/no-automaker-is-anywhere-close-to.html


Do you see now that you were wr- wr- wr- wrong? That what President Trump said would happen, is happening?

rcocean said...

Dr. Fauci is fed up with the reporters dragging him into politics and trying to prompt him to criticize Trump.

Nichevo said...


rcocean said...
Mentally ill Kathy Griffith is in the Hospital with "Unbelievably Painful symptoms"


Just when I thought all the news was bad!

Marc in Eugene said...

I understand that there must have been some 'crowds' at the beach parks here in Oregon: there were a couple of days of the newspapers' going on about coast towns etc alarmed that the 'crowds' were blighting their chances of avoiding the plague. Must have been some truth to it, I tell myself; marijuana-addled kids, perhaps. I know that the last thing we want to do when we go to the coast is park ourselves immediately next to groups of other people.

walter said...

Nobel laureate predicts US will have much faster coronavirus recovery than expected
Oh..I know he ain't no Epidermalist, but..

Mark said...

And of course NYC mayor Bill de Nagin is playing the blame game.

narciso said...

So the chinese virus kerfluffle was ginned up by the splc, quelle surprise.

YoungHegelian said...

As I mentioned before in an earlier post, I strongly suspect that I was an "early adopter" of COVID-19, when I got sick on 2/10/2020. So, I thought "let's make ourselves socially useful" and get tested for the antibodies. If I have the antibodies, then I can donate blood to be used to give the plasma to very sick patient, as mentioned a day or so ago by NY Gov. Cuomo & today by MD Gov. Hogan (I'm in MD).

I first start by calling the walk-in clinic that examined me on 2/10. The nurse says "that's a very interesting question, but I really have no idea where to send you. Call the state dept of health and talk to them about it. Here's the number."

The number turns out to be for the Virginia Dept of Health.

A quick google gets me the number for the MD state dept of health. They send me to the MD COVID hotline. I call the COVID hotline and have a very conversation with the gentleman, except I notice that the conversation mostly consists of me telling him about recent medical & public health developments. But, he thinks it's a good idea after Hogan's speech to follow up on this, and he says call the Montgomery COVID line.

I call Montgomery County & talk to someone who is a call screener. She takes down my information & my request & says she'll pass it up the food chain. I'll let ya know, but I wouldn't be holding yer breath, so as to speak.

In the meantime, my parish is organizing a social-distance marching band, and I think I'll join.

What? Too soon?

narciso said...

Wait werent you just talking to the covid line.

FullMoon said...

Hard to imagine:

"Think about this… How weak and tenuous does a corporate financial position need to be such that being closed for one week means informing all nationwide landlords of your inability to pay the rent next week? Consider this example:
It Begins – Cheesecake Factory Tells Landlords Nationwide They Will Not Pay Rent April 1st…

chuck said...

Wow, Hilary Hahn goes deep. Compare to her performance at fifteen.

Inga said...

“As I mentioned before in an earlier post, I strongly suspect that I was an "early adopter" of COVID-19, when I got sick on 2/10/2020. So, I thought "let's make ourselves socially useful" and get tested for the antibodies. If I have the antibodies, then I can donate blood to be used to give the plasma to very sick patient, as mentioned a day or so ago by NY Gov. Cuomo & today by MD Gov. Hogan (I'm in MD)”

“Latest coronavirus updates as of 6PM on 25 March

Coronavirus antibody test could be available within days

The UK government has ordered more than 3 million finger prick antibody tests that could be ready in a matter of days. The tests could reveal whether someone had covid-19, but it is still not known whether it’s possible to develop long-lasting immunity to the coronavirus.

Read more: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2237475-coronavirus-latest-news-covid-19-antibody-test-ready-in-days/#ixzz6HlIYb7Mz

madAsHell said...

A conversation with my daughter, the epidemiologist.......

...have you ever read “Andromeda Strain” by Michael Crichton ?

It was a movie as well. The movie stuck closely to the plot-line of the book.

The novel described how some people were protected from the andromeda strain by their behaviors. The guy drinking melted sterno (wood alcohol) to get drunk was protected.

Let me jump to a conclusion.......The bums under I-5 will be protected by meth!!


OMG! Dad!! That's day one in Public Health!! Cholera, the brewed beer, and the monks!!!

narciso said...

It was the ph, ones blood was too alkali the other too acid.

walter said...

All this "freeze in place" is going to create a glut of mimes.

Mark said...

I think that Birx said the antibody test is still a couple weeks away from broad distribution.

Inga said...

An At-Home Coronavirus Test May Be on the Way in the U.S.

The test picks up antibodies that the body makes when exposed to the COVID-19 virus; specifically, it looks for IgM antibodies, which the immune system churns out early in the course of most viral infections, as well as IgG antibodies, which appear later as the disease progresses. The presence of these antibodies in the blood strongly suggests that a person has been either exposed to the COVID-19 virus and developed an immune reaction to it, or has natural immunity to it. Either way, it’s a barometer that someone has been or is infected.

ex-madtown girl said...

The other step I took towards maintaining good mental health - after 11 years, I deactivated my Facebook account. Kind of a big deal. Haven’t gone ALL the way and deleted it; perhaps I’ll log back in, in time. But I haven’t missed it yet, I’ll tell you what.

walter said...

You won't think it funny when they're doing "the wall" in every entrance.

walter said...

DiBlasio is having NYC public basketball hoops removed.
Start a hoopometer for folks assigned to that task.

Ken B said...

If you don’t like the lockdowns, if you think it’s crap, if you say there are worse things than death, then who is your ideal leader for today? Who has been doing things the way you want?

Who declined to close schools?

Who told people just 10 days ago to go to the local pub?

Who went to the public gym just last week?

Who is this paragon of all you wish for?

Bill de Blasio.


Mark said...

Did de Blasio drive all the school buses into the river?

Sebastian said...

chuck (good chuck): "Wow, Hilary Hahn goes deep."

You are so right. And what a change! Saw her in performance several years ago: no comparison. Just amazing.

Drago said...

THIS JUST IN: Senile Joe Biden recommends, just today, the govt put together a $2B bailout package with congress and, now hold on to your hats, keep people who are sick quarantined!!

Do you think any of his staffers takes him aside after something like that and says, uh, well, hmmm, you know, thats kind of like advice from a month ago?

I dont think they do because what would be the point?

narciso said...

every day is a new day for him

madAsHell said...

Ya' know....I'm pretty sure I recently bought an emergency generator, but I failed to use the Althouse Amazon portal.

Yeah, I'm paying penance. Remember our hostess!!

Drago said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
walter said...

Drago,
His staffers are just going to hang on to their salaries until the axe drops.
Where do you go with that on resume?
Ok..maybe assisted living centers.

Drago said...

Ken B: "Who is this paragon of all you wish for?
Bill de Blasio."

No way! Just the other day I heard de Blasio discussing the statistics of this virus and I thought to myself, uh oh. There's a guy who "lacks moral seriousness" and clearly had "no respect for the sanctity of human life".

narciso said...

And as pointed out no money for ventilators in the city budget,

Sebastian said...

As testing ramps up, we still need to do the most basic thing: get old and sick people to stay home, quarantined, for real.

Old people out and about in the local store today. Getting their cart wiped from two feet away by a nice lady at the entrance (second entrance closed, just so that they could funnel everybody close together in and out -- yeah, that's social distancing for you), a lady who of course had had close encounters with a couple hundred people during the day. Then slowly making their way down the aisles, touching everything, entirely oblivious about proximity to others.

Why devastate the economy if we can't even rein in basic cluelessness by the major risk groups?

Drago said...

narciso: "And as pointed out no money for ventilators in the city budget,"

Indeed.

And in 2015 Cuomo refused to restock the NY State pandemic supplies that were required.

So you know what that means, right?

Donald Trump is guilty of murder.

In very much the same way that terrorist acts by Islamic Supremacists any where in the world reflects very very badly on Western Christians and Trump voters.

walter said...

Dehooping will impact "midnight basketball"

narciso said...

You forgot the word (and) sebastian, they made a big deal about those folks stranded in ohare last week, as if there was anothrt way it could have gone differently.

Mark said...

Bill passed the Senate 96-0.

narciso said...

This is like a very macabre max von sydow, good grief what is wrong with people, its a multiple choice.

walter said...

Buck Sexton
@BuckSexton
·
55m
de Blasio is just the worst
--
That's the full post. Not like Buck..he's had it.

JML said...

Unknown-Congrats. My last day is next Tuesday. The son and his wife moved here just last Sunday. His job got pushed back - hopefully if will hold. His wife's job still looks like a go early next month. Work is a mess, and I considered staying longer, but my wife is correct-my mental health can't take it much longer. We took a hit in the 401s, but we are both getting a pension and it will work out. I'm glad the timing has come together for you and your family!

Original Mike said...

"And in 2015 Cuomo refused to restock the NY State pandemic supplies that were required."

Why'd he do that?

eddie willers said...

How can you hoard eggs and not end up throwing them away at some point? J

You're in Florida and don't know about pickled eggs?

Good God....put them next to your Slim Jims!

walter said...

Perhaps like MD's, ventilators could be disseminated across state line.
I'm not hearing about that.

YoungHegelian said...

And in 2015 Cuomo refused to restock the NY State pandemic supplies that were required.

And just wait --- that hand sanitizer that Cuomo stated was being made by NY state prisoners: well, not quite, just bottled.

Dollars to donuts, the contract to make the hand sanitizer was given to some politically connected "Friend of The Governor" in a no-bid contract. I mean, of course it's no bid! It's an emergency. Lives at stake, man!

I'll be happy to take bets on this....

Ken B said...

Original Mike
To “save” money.

Catastrophic error right?
Short sighted right?
Right.

But the same error the Drago Birkel bunch want to make now: ignore the possibility of disaster, only prepare for the best outcome.

Drago said...

"And in 2015 Cuomo refused to restock the NY State pandemic supplies that were required."

Original Mike: "Why'd he do that?"

Because Cuomo wanted the approx $550 Million needed to stock the ventilators to be used instead for a $700 Million green energy solar boondoggle that delivered zero value for the state but did satisfy his lefty enviro lunatic allies.

Drago said...

Ken B: "But the same error the Drago Birkel bunch want to make now: ignore the possibility of disaster, only prepare for the best outcome."

I see the lies are coming much easier to you now.

Practice makes perfect.

Mark said...

Trip chews out Peter Griffin in doing repairs to a damaged Enterprise.

Original Mike said...

"Because Cuomo wanted the approx $550 Million needed to stock the ventilators to be used instead for a $700 Million green energy solar boondoggle…"

Christ..

narciso said...

That is criminal negligence, and we see the price reflected today in the rotten huak of the big apple and adjoining boroughs

Yancey Ward said...

chuck,

That is one of the things I love using YouTube for- performers doing the same piece young, then 10-20 years older. I have even listened to those two performances almost back to back. Yes, Hahn performance at 39 was just so much richer than the one 24 years earlier.

Ken B said...

Blogger narciso said...
“That is criminal negligence, and we see the price reflected today in the rotten huak of the big apple and adjoining boroughs”

Well I agree. But the denialists dont. And de Blasio has been beyond awful. So NYC is going to be awful.

Drago said...

Ken B: "Well I agree. But the denialists dont."

Except your hoax "denialist", me, has made this point repeatedly.

Which makes your claim self-refuting, again.

I'm beginning to see why you view the discussion of statistics around this pandemic in the way a vampire would react to sunlight and garlic.

I'm also beginning to see why you and Inga, the biggest lefty lunatic conspiracy theorist on this site, make such a good team on this topic.

narciso said...

You're as obtuse as trudeau, who semt all his medical equipment to china, because reasons.

narciso said...

2015 was after cuomo beat zephyr teachout the non indian pretender to warrens bafflegrab, so naturally he implemented as much of her platform as possible and diubled down after beating moonbat cynthia nixon.

Drago said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Drago said...

narciso: "You're as obtuse as trudeau, who semt all his medical equipment to china, because reasons."

I can answer that:

Trudeau was the recipient of alot of cash over the years by allowing the ChiComs access to Canada in order to avoid US tariffs.

Once USMCA went thru, the NAFTA "loophole" which allowed this backdoor into the US market via Canada was closed and China immediately began smacking the Canadians around like there was no tomorrow.

Everyone saw what happened to Canadian jobs and the economy once that happened: Canada lost massive numbers of jobs and their economy flatlined.

Trudeau has been sucking up to the Chinese every day since in the hopes that the ChiCom's would throw him a few more bucks for a few more factories and jobs, etc. So far, very little luck in that regard.

And that's where the medical equipment transfer from Canada to China comes in.....

Plus, it was viewed as another "cutesy" little Trudeau "dig" at Trump....which in the end hurts Canadians instead.

That Trudeau. He's not exactly a rocket scientist or grand strategist, is he?

narciso said...

Why i say hes not related to fidel in anyway, this kind of inbecility is home grown.

Drago said...

I would provide additional statistics on the number of jobs lost in Canada once the NAFTA loophole was closed, but, per the Ken B Rule, once statistics are either asked for or given, everyone involved in the conversation is deemed "lacking in moral seriousness".

narciso said...

And yet they reelected him, proving kent brockman right.

Drago said...

narciso: "Why i say hes not related to fidel in anyway, this kind of inbecility is home grown."

Hmmm, nature vs nurture?

Is it possible he is Fidel's little crumb-cruncher but that the "nurture" atmosphere in Canada and Europe turned him as soft as a jellyfish?

Inga said...

“How can you hoard eggs and not end up throwing them away at some point?”

You can freeze eggs

narciso said...

On the west coast, garcetti went through a cholera outbreak in city hall, what is this 1897, so theres no intelligent life out there.

narciso said...

Its like the menendez bros, pleading mercy because they were orphans, try doing anything constructive with either axis.

wildswan said...

In our store they assigned Tuesday and Thursday, early, for seniors and it's semi-mandatory to use those days, or, perhaps I should say, it's expected. I went in today (Wednesday) to get milk and also to suggest they do a grocery clerk appreciation day (including a place to appreciate with money) and the manager was interested. But it was sort of hard to be in there on the "wrong" day - I can't exactly describe the creeping feeling I got about it. Anyhow it made me think that isolating Joe Biden is a bad idea because he'll miss signals about all the changes people are going through. If they have to isolate him, they better not run him but that means running Bernie. They've been so smart they've outwitted themselves.

Ken B said...

New at Walmart, the Denialist Sympathy Card. For those deaths that really don’t matter.

The Grandma: “65 is older than the female life expectancy (circa 1800).”
The Asthmatic: “Comorbidity. You can’t really blame the virus.”
The Smoker: “Looks like the Surgeon General wins Again.”

walter said...

All the CAGW chicken little acts have diminished the "denialist!" label.
"Covidiot" is fresh! Potent!

Ken B said...

Walter
Yeah, but Drago denies he’s a covidiot.

narciso said...

Covidiot as trenchant as teabagger for arguments sake.

Original Mike said...

I'm not up to date on this feud.

I'm OK with that.

narciso said...

Its the argument clinic, but the anvil hasnt dropped yet.

Ot, its too bad the orville will be on hulu, like all the other prigramming fx promotes yhey cant air

narciso said...

Programming they cant air.

walter said...

Ken B,
Since Drago is a lost cause, you could comment on the Levitt link above.

narciso said...

Dispair is each one of the courses of a fhree course meal.

mockturtle said...

There seems to be more truculence than is usual in the blog comments. Cabin fever?

walter said...

Lotta truculence due to Chipotle drive-thru.

Jon Ericson said...

Canadian related

walter said...

Canadian retweeted:
Tom Greene Retweeted
Jamie Dupree
@jamiedupree
·
11h
Sen Lindsey Graham R-SC: "This bill pays you more not to work than if you were working"

Mark said...

Washington Post headlines --

Senate approves $2.2 trillion coronavirus bill aimed at slowing economic free fall

The $2 trillion relief bill is massive but it won’t prevent a recession

Trump continues to push to reopen the economy, despite health risks

walter said...

C'mon man!

Mark said...

The Sasse amendment would have limited unemployment benefits to the amount paid in the job that was lost.

It was defeated.

Drago said...

Ken B: "Walter Yeah, but Drago denies he’s a covidiot."

I happen to think the person making the charge ought to be able to point to some sort of evidence to justify the accusation.

You can't.

In the same way that you react so viscerally to anyone asking questions about data, where it came from, it's context, etc.

The mere use of statistics sets you off into "moral seriousness"-land.

walter said...

Puhleeze let us get back to CAGW and NASA bolstering Islam's math heritage.

Drago said...

walter: "Ken B, Since Drago is a lost cause, you could comment on the Levitt link above."

I sure hope that link doesn't lead one to any discussion involving statistics and Ken B! It will set him off like there is no tomorrow!

Drago said...

walter: "Puhleeze let us get back to CAGW and NASA bolstering Islam's math heritage."

Can't.

CAGW discussions involve statistics, and Ken B does not find those "morally serious".

Mark said...

Great.

Instead of commenting on the situation or the issues, we get more pissy personal attacks.

Drago said...

Things Ken B does find "morally serious": commenters who claim Trump is attempting to establish the Handmaids Tale in America.

Drago said...

Mark: "Great. Instead of commenting on the situation or the issues, we get more pissy personal attacks."

I'm disinclined to allow hoax "covidiot" attacks upon myself without responding in some way.

Mark said...

Gotta say, I really do dig the Mannix theme music.

walter said...

This is Mark's presumptive metv thread.

Mark said...

I wish I had known that FX is rerunning the Fargo TV series.

Mark said...

I get more than one channel.

walter said...

This a no one denied phase of covidpopalace, Mark.
Relief in stereo

Jon Ericson said...

Drago:
You live in The country founded on slavery.
Therefore, you lose in a Checkov competition with Beaverland.

Drago said...

Jon Ericson: "Drago:
You live in The country founded on slavery.
Therefore, you lose in a Checkov competition with Beaverland."

Indeed.

gadfly said...

Handbag maker, Vera Bradley Designs, Inc., closed its New Haven, IN factory in 2015, sending the function to China but the company has continued to make new product samples and to design new products in Fort Wayne.

Yesterday they announced that they will make face masks and other items to help provide needed personal protective gear for America's hospitals. Perhaps their design could be offered to other cut-and-sew companies looking for manufacturing work.

walter said...

gadfly resurfaces to propel a 2015 reference.

Clyde said...

It's not a one-café town.

Achilles said...

Ken B said...

Well I agree. But the denialists dont. And de Blasio has been beyond awful. So NYC is going to be awful.

I know it sucks being wrong.

But you don't have to be a complete asshole about it.

walter said...

I guess using otherwise unused domestic manufacturing capacity is a good thing.

walter said...

Levitt? No one?

Achilles said...

walter said...
Levitt? No one?

I agree with some of what he says.

He guessed ~3200 deaths in China. This is wrong. China lied about how many were dead.

But everything else I saw in that short article sound right to me.

The numbers just aren't there.

Kyjo said...

I happen to be an immunocompromised asthmatic. I was taking recommended precautions (washing my hands more frequently and thoroughly, coughing into the crook of my arm (that phrase has apparently disappeared from the English language), avoiding crowds, limiting outings mostly to the grocery store and gas station, not shaking hands, etc.) before the imposition of “shelter-in-place” orders in the Bay Area. My work can only halfway be done remotely, so I was still reporting to the office daily up till then, and maintaining several feet of distance for any prolonged interactions with other people. (Also, because the people I oversee are vendors whose work can’t be done remotely, I hoped my physical presence would encourage them that they weren’t being abandoned—most of my colleagues started working from home as soon as it was an option.) I think the most restrictive measures being taken by certain localities and states in the US have been justified on the basis of worst case modeling using garbage data, that the data we have suggests that SARS 2 isn’t nearly as virulent as we were initially led to believe and could well prove to be less dangerous to society on the whole than seasonal flu, and that extended shutdowns lasting months are unsustainable socially (without brutal enforcement) or economically. Am I a covidiot?

My progressive friends these days are making Facebook posts demanding that our “fascist” president nationalize private industry to produce ventilators, explaining how capitalism made the pandemic worse (#DontDie4WallStreet), saying that any relief bill should provide only for workers and not for “corporations,” and arguing that Medicare for All would create jobs and allow people to get sick without the economy suffering. They don’t understand what the economy is or what it does. Economorons. But they are proud believers in science, the first to post the ubiquitous “flatten the curve” graphs, and the first to sneer “math is hard” when anyone takes a sideways glance of their EXPONENTIAL models showing hundreds of thousands or millions dead if we don’t confine everyone to their homes indefinitely.

Big Mike said...

@Ken B., sorry, dude, but “denialist” is a term used exclusively by people who lost their argument to this thing called reality. See also AGW denialist and it’s successor, climate change denialist.

Also Epstein didn’t kill himself.

Big Mike said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Big Mike said...

@Kijo, hope you come through this unscathed. But you do need a better class of Facebook friends. You could probably get them to unfriend you by pointing out all the blunders by the CDC and FDA in this crisis.

Big Mike said...

I deleted a snarky comment I had made about Kathy Griffin. She’s a wholly unsympathetic character, but after I read it I realized I was getting down into the gutter with her, and that’s not right.

J. Farmer said...

@Ken B:

Some friendly advice: don’t bother. You can’t talk delusional people out of their delusions.

Kyjo said...

@BigMike, thanks, and same to you. As for my progressive friends on Facebook, I like to think I’ve built up some immunity living in the Bay Area, and, thus, for the most part, I can shrug off the stuff they say. But I’ll admit it’s a bit more trying when I’m holed up at home and more likely to look at Facebook.

BUMBLE BEE said...

Take a while, think about it.., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6O3cadTHmTU

stevew said...

We have an offer on the house, it is below asking, we've countered to see how close we can get to asking price, the market is unknown. I'm inclined to take it, expect that we'll be able to find a new place and get it for below their asking. If not, we don't have to move, but I expect we won't see any more offers until the bans are lifted.

WTF is up with Biden? I get that he thinks what he's doing is keeping himself visible, but what he's saying and how he's saying it isn't helping him. And it's totally unnecessary. Wouldn't a smart adviser tell him to stand by while this thing plays out? If forced to opine just speak supportively and with optimism about the nation's ability to get through this.

What a maroon.

exhelodrvr1 said...

"WTF is up with Biden?"

Agreed. The best thing for the country and also his campaign would be for him to express support for Pres Trump as he works to get us through this. This appears to be a major strategic error on their part. I wonder if it's related to him dropping his campaign manager and hiring Beto's?

MountainMan said...

With regards to the ventilators being made by Ford see the following:

How Ford is Using Seat Ventilation Fans.

Fernandinande said...

@Ken B: Some friendly advice: don’t bother. You can’t talk delusional people out of their delusions.

I hope the hilarity of that comment was not inadvertent.

BUMBLE BEE said...

Sad to see the Green Growers taking a hit. Can't wait to see the flower lineup. Need COLOR in these times. Rhubarb coming on strong!
Ventilators? No problem. Prototype departments are jammin on this stuff as we speak. Really people, ventilators aren't weapons, or B-24s. Does CPAP ring a bell? I should hope so.

BUMBLE BEE said...

Gonna try strawberry/rhubarb pie with the frozen harvest from last year.

stevew said...

The stimulus bill was passed unanimously in the Senate. Sounds like the right time for Biden to jump on the innertubes and express his extreme objection and disappointment at the failure to make adequate provisions for workers and the less fortunate.

Known Unknown said...

"You can freeze eggs"

Cool. Thanks, Inga.

Ken B said...

Walter
On Levitt.
I hope he is right. He is a formidable guy. But we cannot go all in on a strategy that ignores huge risks. (I don’t say that he is advocating such a thing), and so far he is an outlier. No one knows what will happen. But when uncertainty is high and potential disasters lurk you have to deal with managing risk. Ignoring it isn’t a good way.

Ken B said...

J. Farmer said...
@Ken B:

Some friendly advice: don’t bother. You can’t talk delusional people out of their delusions.

—————

Indeed. I'm not trying to actually. I do like to make sure casual readers occasionally see a delusion corrected though.

Big Mike said...

@Ken B. and Farmer, unless, of course, you are the deluded ones. See my comment in today’s thread regarding the German death rate.

Ken B said...

Kyjo
Do you go around saying the death count will hit 7500 tops? Or will hit any particular number within 30,000 and claim an 80% confidence level for it? or ask endlessly why we didn’t have lockdowns for diseases where a vaccine existed, or dismiss risks by smirking at “exponential”? If the answer is no to all these then you are not a covidiot. But we have covidiots here, and all those examples come from their postings here on Althouse.

Ken B said...

Big Mike
Indeed. And I have responded over there.
As Bliss notes, no one has a crystal ball but if you learn the math you can sort the wheat from the chaff. One of my degrees is in mathematics.

Mark said...

Gonna try strawberry/rhubarb pie with the frozen harvest from last year.

Skip the strawberries.