COVID-19 Coronavirus: general discussion

Mark of Zorro said:

I cannot read it. They want to put cookies on my machine. That won't happen.

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Here's a bit:

The Federal Reserve thus far has unleashed what's frequently been called a bazooka in its efforts to calm markets. Its next step could be to go nuclear.

Should conditions on Wall Street deteriorate significantly, the central bank could go where it's never gone before, into the equity market where it would take a passive interest in the performance of stocks, according to market analysts and economists.




The Fed already has unloaded an unprecedented level of ammunition against the tumult brought on by the coronavirus, so doing more would take it even further into uncharted waters.

However, interviews with a variety of market pros over the past week showed that the idea of the Fed venturing into the stock market seems anything but far-fetched. The Fed would need congressional permission to extend its operations, but already has received wide latitude from the Treasury Department through emergency provisions in the Federal Reserve Act.

Majestic said:

I get all my coronavirus updates from Brent Terhune.

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He's pretty good guy. I like his vids. Kind of a relax guy also.

musicisgood said:

He's pretty good guy. I like his vids. Kind of a relax guy also.

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Being a hillbilly and having grown up with rednecks, I really do appreciate all the redneck/hillbilly sarcasm messiahs. Beau, Brent and also Trae Crowder. I wanted to link to Trae, but he uses too many expletives. If you want to see him, go to Youtube and search for:
Liberal Redneck - Coronavirus in America

Heavy smoker Ken Shimura died from....well...I guess I will call it corona suicide. The guy was 70 and smoked heavy. Any pneumonia could have wiped him out. Regardless, I expect his death will spark a reaction or two, whether good or bad...perhaps more panic buying or maybe more social distancing among the old and infirm, the heavy smokers, the heavy drinkers, the diabetic etc.

But I am not hopeful for sensibility that's for sure.

Shimura apparently quit smoking after he contracted pneumonia a few years back. He did famously like to drink, but drinking itself isn't a suicidal action, and he apparently made an honest effort to cut down in recent years. He also was by all accounts a genuinely good and decent dude, and 70 is on the young end to actually die from this, so it's hard for me to feel anything but genuine regret about his passing. I agree that this may make others in his age group with similar preexisting conditions sit up and take notice.

bentenmusume said:

Shimura apparently quit smoking after he contracted pneumonia a few years back. He did famously like to drink, but drinking itself isn't a suicidal action, and he apparently made an honest effort to cut down in recent years. He also was by all accounts a genuinely good and decent dude, and 70 is on the young end to actually die from this, so it's hard for me to feel anything but genuine regret about his passing. I agree that this may make others in his age group with similar preexisting conditions sit up and take notice.

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Having a celebrity die makes impact for sure no matter what. But indeed his health state, even though he quit, wasn't good.

To share a part for me. My father who has been smoking since 15, drunk too much in his life, had 3 strokes and his leg amputated because his blood got stuck in his leg, etc. is living in a care center in Holland. Nobody can meet him nor go inside his house. This week two of his neighbors got the virus and I'm worried about him, but what can I do from here... Just hope things will get better soon.

A little update for this evening. Most of this can be found, but I put a little personal thought behind some of it for those that are not living in Japan.

Update: March 30 , Monday Tokyo time: evening with a cup off coffee in front of the keyboard

1. There were at least 723,740 reported cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, and 34,018 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. ( I wonder if that includes China and other parts of Asia ) There's a reason why I say that is because, how are they labeling the deaths. (flu... virus...suicide..)
2. Doctors, nurses and other medical workers on‌ ‌the‌ ‌front lines‌ ‌of‌ ‌the‌ ‌coronavirus‌ ‌epidemic‌ ‌in‌ ‌Italy‌ ‌and‌ ‌Spain are succumbing to the respiratory illness themselves, and this is happening world-wide these days
3. It was not well understood how infectious the virus can be even in those who don't seem very sick. But researchers now know that those with mild symptoms who are told to stay at home usually risked passing the virus to family members, as well as to others outside their homes as some still moved around freely. This is the BIG ONE. What the heck do we do.
Got to test, then mandatory quarantine in a facility. NO OTHER choice. FEMA camps for Americans?
4. Got to be aware of this when answering the doors if you are a police officer these days: One officer was killed and two more were injured in a shooting in Phoenix on Sunday night, according to the Phoenix Police Department.
5. Lucky I bought 4 packs: All the Yeast Is Sold Out Right Now. Yep, make bread and pizza here.
6. People if you are old , smoke, drink heavy. Here, read this, and he only lasted less then 2 weeks after complaining of a fever. Ken Shimura Japanese Comedian Dies of Coronavirus Age 70 Now all the Japanese young are now taking this a bit more serious, but its too late, they all partied last Friday at restaurants and pubs and Karaoke. Its coming and its going to come real hard here. I've mentioned it before. I honestly can see up to 5000 new infections a day when they finally get around testing. Terrible I tell ya. The virus is a hidden enemy, yet, the politicians know it, but... hey we got to go about this SLOWLY.
4. 'Italy is closed' Wow!

5. More on this later tonight I think: Japan to expand entry ban to include U.S., China and most of Europe. I think they mean a 14 day quarantine?
6. Corporate Japan also appears to be in a crisis mode. Economic revitalization minister Yasutoshi Nishimura has said that the government plans to ask private companies to increase the production of ventilators to prepare for a possible escalation of the new coronavirus outbreak. Kind of slow if you ask me.


7. This is new to me: about 30000 people have been tested so far here in Japan
8. Not sure if this is current at the time of writing , but 56 deaths from the virus


This evenings update:

According to local governments and the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, there were 1,937 people who were infected in Japan at 8:30 pm on the 30th, including those found in airport quarantine and those who returned home on charter aircraft. In addition, the cruise ship has a crew of 712 passengers, for a total of 2,649. A total of 68 people died , including 57 people infected in the country and 11 cruise ships.

By region, including the local governments that announced 1937 cases of infection in Japan,
443 in Tokyo, ( these numbers for such a city is like a baby taking it first crawl )
216 in Osaka
176 in Hokkaido (slowing down in Hokkaido now ) which is good (maybe it has to do with air travel )?
167 in Aichi,
Chiba 158 people ( yikes, getting higher every day )
133 people in the Hyogo prefecture
128 people in the Kanagawa prefecture (really folks, this doesn't look good at all )
85 people in the Saitama prefecture
51 people in the Kyoto prefecture
31 people in the Niigata prefecture
28 people in the Oita prefecture and Fukuoka prefecture,
22 people in Gifu prefecture,
18 people in Gunma prefecture and Wakayama prefecture,
16 people in Ibaraki prefecture
15 people in Fukui prefecture and Kochi prefecture
13 people in Kumamoto prefecture
12 people in Tochigi prefecture, 12 people in
Nara 11 people in the
prefecture, 9 people in Ishikawa, Mie and Okinawa ( Okinawa is seeing increases, doesn't look too good there )
8 people in Nagano
7 people in Aomori, 6 people in
Miyagi, Shiga, Hiroshima and Yamaguchi, 6
Shizuoka 5
4 Akita, Yamanashi and Ehime prefectures,
3 Okayama and Miyazaki prefectures
2 Fukushima and Nagasaki prefectures, 4
Tokushima, Kagawa, Saga and Kagoshima prefectures , Toyama Prefecture is one person.

In addition,
14 people returned home from China via charter aircraft,
41 people including employees of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, quarantine officers, and those who were confirmed to be infected by airport quarantine. (this seems to be a real problem )

Please don't open up the schools this or next week: Osaka Prefecture Elementary school students, 17 new cases confirmed, total of 208. Of this is one elementary student. If students are asymptomatic and go to school, the consequences are going to be devastating . The virus can spread to the whole family.

need to go to 7-11 now and buy me some more wine

Ok...
My wife is scared as hell... How do I calm her down without saying don't worry... Trying various ways but want her to calm down.

Davey said:

Ok...
My wife is scared as hell... How do I calm her down without saying don't worry... Trying various ways but want her to calm down.

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Well, if she is under 50 and has no chronic illnesses and is not some kind of doctor or nurse getting exposed to a huge viral load, tell I said she is going to be fine as far as the virus is concerned.

Maybe gardening would be a good hobby to take up right now. It might come down to growing your own food.

Davey said:

My wife is scared as hell... How do I calm her down without saying don't worry... Trying various ways but want her to calm down.

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Best way is to get her to keep the tv off.

Mark of Zorro said:

Well, if she is under 50 and has no chronic illnesses and is not some kind of doctor or nurse getting exposed to a huge viral load, tell I said she is going to be fine as far as the virus is concerned.

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Or you could try this. Tell her that Mark of Zorro said it will be fine.

This is worth watching. I think getting the antibody test out there will be key. As soon as we can identify people who have had it and are immune, the sooner those people can go back to work. He mentions Japan but didn't express doubt that Japan has things under control.

Choir practice turns fatal. Airborne coronavirus strongly suspected
The deadly outbreak among members of a choir has stunned health officials, who have concluded that the virus was almost certainly transmitted through the air from one or more people without symptoms.
—
Nearly three weeks later, 45 have been diagnosed with COVID-19 or ill with the symptoms, at least three have been hospitalized, and two are dead.
The outbreak has stunned county health officials, who have concluded that the virus was almost certainly transmitted through the air from one or more people without symptoms.

"That's all we can think of right now," said Polly Dubbel, a county communicable disease and environmental health manager.
In interviews with the Los Angeles Times, eight people who were at the rehearsal said that nobody there was coughing or sneezing or appeared ill.

There are a lot of sites from which you can get updated numbers.
I use the NHK's site for consistency. The Japanese site looks to be updated more regularly, but there is an English site as well. They give total cases, daily cases, and prefecture-by-prefecture cases

特設サイト 新型コロナウイルス 感染者数やNHK最新ニュース｜NHK ←Japanese.
Coronavirus | NHK WORLD-JAPAN News ← English

For worldwide stats I use the following

As far as helping your wife calm down, the best thing you can do is put her in charge of something, give her control over some aspect of her/your life that she can focus on. My wife learned how to make a mask, and is helping figure out what food to stock up and getting that food (figuring out when to go to the market to avoid the crowds and the lines, etc..). Maybe sort out what you need in the way of supplies for, say, two months and then setting about prioritizing those. If you feel like you are being buffeted by the heavy winds of the daily rumors and celebrity deaths and fretting about lockdowns and other stuff, its easy to feel overwhelmed. Focus on what you can do, what you can control.

musicisgood said:

1. There were at least 723,740 reported cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, and 34,018 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. ( I wonder if that includes China and other parts of Asia )

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Yes, the Johns Hopkins site includes Asia. There are inconsistencies in the numbers depending upon when the various sites are updated, and because some use slightly different counting methodologies, but at this scale of things, the trends are more important than slight numerical variances.

Here is a twitter user who contracted coronavirus, she details the day-by-day progression. Slightly scary, but very useful, I think, for understanding what one might go through, how long it lasts, and what seems to help. One of those tweets that is a sobering counterpoint to the people who think this is an old person's disease.

mdchachi said:

Or you could try this. Tell her that Mark of Zorro said it will be fine.

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Get off my case. Its not even what I said. Again you troll and falsely accuse. Screw it. I am reporting you.

Majestic said:

For worldwide stats I use the following

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Hey! Thanks.
I didn't know about that one. Looks like it is pretty up to day too.

When do you folks think we'll see an explosion of cases now in Tokyo, Osaka and Fukuoka?

Davey said:

Having a celebrity die makes impact for sure no matter what. But indeed his health state, even though he quit, wasn't good.

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Yes, I wasn't trying to insist that his health state was good. I just thought it a bit unfair to characterize his death as corona "suicide" when he had apparently been taking measures to improve his health since three years before he contracted the virus (which, unfortunately, probably "cared" a lot more about his lifestyle up until then than what he'd done in the past couple of years). "Corona suicide" strikes me as a more apt description of the guy who tested positive and then immediately went out drinking (actually, I suppose that would be more "corona suicide-plus-attempted-murder").

musicisgood said:

need to go to 7-11 now and buy me some more wine

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These are trying times. I suggest you upgrade from 発泡酒 to at least Kirin Lager or Ichiban-shibori, if not splurging for Ebisu. I hear real alcohol is better for your immune system.

mdchachi said:

Mark of Zorro said:

Well, if she is under 50 and has no chronic illnesses and is not some kind of doctor or nurse getting exposed to a huge viral load, tell I said she is going to be fine as far as the virus is concerned.

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Or you could try this. Tell her that Mark of Zorro said it will be fine.

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This is a bit mean-spirited, I think. I mean, it is true that if she's (relatively) young with a clean health history and is taking precautions to limit her exposure, she's not at an incredibly high risk. Not saying she should throw caution to the wind, of course, but panicking more than necessary can make things worse (and isn't good for your physical or mental health to begin with). I understand MoZ says some controversial things, but this is a fairly innocuous statement.

bentenmusume said:

I just thought it a bit unfair to characterize his death as corona "suicide"

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I understand. I just could find no better way to relay the fact that its not like he just plopped over dead for corona or even that its just his age that did it. In my circles cigarettes are called "cancer sticks" and its widely acknowledged that smoking (esp. chemical laced big brand tobacco) is a form of slow suicide. I could have said pneumonia suicide but that would not reflect the current situation. Anyway, he set himself up for something and I would have characterized that something the same way, "something suicide". Hitting the brakes when you are 5 meters from the obstacle just isn't going to work and it seems that it what he did essentially.

This is an interesting read:

Majestic said:

As far as helping your wife calm down, the best thing you can do is put her in charge of something, give her control over some aspect of her/your life that she can focus on. My wife learned how to make a mask, and is helping figure out what food to stock up and getting that food (figuring out when to go to the market to avoid the crowds and the lines, etc..). Maybe sort out what you need in the way of supplies for, say, two months and then setting about prioritizing those. If you feel like you are being buffeted by the heavy winds of the daily rumors and celebrity deaths and fretting about lockdowns and other stuff, its easy to feel overwhelmed. Focus on what you can do, what you can control.

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I really like this advice. My wife's method of coping is to keep Japanese TV on constantly.
On top of that we watched Contagion a couple weeks ago and just minutes ago we watched 感染列島. At least she had the good sense to watch these movies after the kids were in bed.

musicisgood said:

prefecture, 9 people in Ishikawa, Mie and Okinawa ( Okinawa is seeing increases, doesn't look too good there )

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We had 4 in one day, two of which were service members returning from Europe with the US not cooperating with providing information on their movements besides "they had no contact" (at least confirm whether they flew commercially or by military aircraft). Then, we had 1 person visiting their family members here (active duty) test the next day; still no word on which flights they were on to see where it could go next... but we definitely need to ramp up testing and people need to stop coming here because we're severely unprepared to handle this down here.