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Tactically Inept

Coronavirus / COVID-19


kuhla

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im not sure how i feel being in the public. i will prob show up tomorrow for work and go home half day to continue to work from home. some people already work from home friday.

in terms of the virus itself. the only thing im worry about is the shortness of breath. ive seen all the numbers and statistics.  but ive had some anxiety issues in the past and feeling not being able to breathe sucks and kinda scary. but for the most part im chillin.

 

also some doctor says that this could be more than droplets. the virus can stay in the air like dust particles.

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Here is what gets to me about the panic buying.
There are some businesses that the government will not ask to close like grocery stores and pharmacies.
There has not been a sudden increase in the population.
The existing population does not suddenly need to eat more.
This is not an earthquake, fire, etc. the roads are not damaged. There is no reason at this time to think that stores will not get resupplied.

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I would guess that most people go to the grocery stores at least once a week, but some people are faced with having to isolate in their homes for 14+ days.  Not to mention that most people do not cook all their meals, so their consumption has not only increased but it's also hitting as a demand shock, when everyone overbuys.  Many people are falsely treating this like a natural disaster, where they hear self-isolation as "hunker down and don't leave the house" when in reality it's close to "adjust your habits and stay inside if possible."  This isn't Wuhan or other parts of China where they government will lock people indoors and enforce strict curfews. 

I agree that most stores will continue to resupply and for the US in particular we have enough food production to handle a reduction in global trade.  We're not at risk of running out of food.  Unfortunately there were also multiple reports of people using the panic buying as an opportunity to try and resell in-demand items for absurd prices.  If I personally see anything like that I plan on reporting those individuals, I suspect the authorities will make examples of them. 

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2 hours ago, Malaphax said:

This isn't Wuhan or other parts of China where they government will lock people indoors and enforce strict curfews.

As far as I know other regions (except for the above) that have gone into hard lockdown have still allowed people to go to grocery stores and pharmacies. Even minimizing trips to the grocery stores and pharmacies would not justify the stockpiling we are seeing. People are buying multiple weeks (in some cases months worth) of water, flour, sugar, oats, etc.

 

Crazy to see Romney talking about essentially UBI:

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/487794-romney-proposes-sending-1000-to-every-american-adult-amid-coronavirus?fbclid=IwAR2aZJA5E5PdjtQZxGeJCO6und-klNzilV-9Jae78x_zdjnhT-mk0aY9XOk

First human testing of a possible vaccine:

https://apnews.com/76b614811eef32955180c8260188bc24

 

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I agree the panic buying is absolutely out of control, worse than that, most of it doesn't make sense.  Again, most people in the US have some limited exposure to storms or other weather events so they seem to be treating COVID19 in a similar way, which isn't particularly useful.  Again, comparing the US or Wuhan or Italy - both of which didn't have issues with potable water or even food, let alone toilet paper. 

I heard about Romney basically stealing kuhla Yang's proposal - it would be super interesting to see what happens if that gets enough traction.  Most of the talk of bailouts has been focused on major banks and financial institutions, and that 2008 reminicent feeling of "why are the big banks being bailed out" is starting to creep back in.  I'm curious if we'll see another occupy wall st. style protests once this clears up. 

As far as human testing is concerned, I think we're also going to see some very abbreviated trials (for better and worse), I have some mixed feelings on that. 

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Isn't it nice how our generation gets to witness first-hand so many major events in history like....

  1. the deadliest terrorist attack in US history
  2. the great recession
  3. the longest US war in history
  4. the coronavirus pandemic
  5. which kicks off the great recession #2

(sarcasm)

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8 hours ago, T1no said:

apparently some china regions already back to work.

Yeah. I have heard the same.

China is "past the hump". I think I saw some people say "the hump" (think a bell curve) was about 9 weeks in China. Italy is still building up to the top of their "hump" and some people have estimated they are 11 days ahead of us.

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soo regarding fever. do you guys ride it ? or take anti inflammatory ?

last time i had a bacteria infection i had a fever all the way to 103. i was like fuck it lets kill this thing. obviously doesn't work because i need a antibiotic.

then after a few days i gave up then take advil and go to doctor.

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15 minutes ago, T1no said:

soo regarding fever. do you guys ride it ? or take anti inflammatory ?

last time i had a bacteria infection i had a fever all the way to 103. i was like fuck it lets kill this thing. obviously doesn't work because i need a antibiotic.

then after a few days i gave up then take advil and go to doctor.

If I have a sore throat or a cough then I take nyquil in the evening before going to bed, because those symptoms can prevent me from getting any sleep, and cough drops during the day.

The only times I take anti-inflamatories like Advil (ibuprofen) or Aleve (naproxen) is when I have a very bad muscle strain that will prevent me from sleeping. Even then I try to take it easy with them because of the potential for kidney issues.

I cannot remember the last time I took antibiotics and at this point I don't want to unless it's extremely serious because I am worried about how it affects good gut bacteria/"microbiome".

I would imagine that doctors are being told not to prescribe antibiotics (antibacterial) to treat virus infections.

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Hot takes and general weirdness. 

The Federal/State/Local government distinction is starting to cause problems.  OC especially with issuing orders to shelter in place, countermanding those orders, and then having California State and LA put out those orders is not a great look.  To make matters worse the federal orders and guidelines seem to be all over the place.  I understand there's a difference between each state's current situation, but it feels incredibly haphazard and disorganized.  I will say that this entire situation evolved RAPIDLY, and that added to the general chaos, but at times like this, it's clear which responses from the government are handled well and which are a mess. 

Panic buying and hording.  People are assholes, we have plenty of supplies for everyone but people just buying out entire stores has caused some genuine supply shortages as the supply chain attempts to catch up and restock grocery stores etc.  To make matters even weirder, you have stores themselves instituting purchase limits, which feels like we're back in WWII with a ration card.  Thankfully most of the jackasses that are trying to price gouge are getting handled by local officials, I'm sure we'll see more than a few very harsh fines and possibly limited prison/probation for people found price gouging.  It also brings into focus that some states do not have anti price gouging laws, and I suspect we'll see that change.  I still honestly don't understand the toilet paper thing. 

Working from home, IT issues and emergency preparedness plans.  I also think this is going to be a huge shift in the work from home trend, I suspect most white color employees that normally sit in a cube farm are suddenly realizing they can do 80% of their job from home.  Unfortunately, every single MSP and IT department is slammed because very few companies were set up to totally work remotely and now everyone is scrambling.  I suspect companies like Citrix, Zoom, and Microsoft are going to see massive gains as companies begin to shift large portions of their infrastructure to the cloud or at least make core functionality cloud accessible.  I also bet that most companies are suddenly finding that their emergency preparedness plans are either woefully insufficient or just don't exist, we might see some changes in how companies plan for emergencies. 
Thought experiment: How would a pandemic like this have affected the economy 10 or 20 years ago?  Without the recent advances in cloud infrastructure, I'm not sure how this would have worked.  I feel like we're at least moderately set up to deal with work from home scenario, but even 10 years ago I feel like most companies would be totally screwed. 

I'm sure we'll see other additional shifts like a refocus on our network infrastructure, tele-medicine, remote education, etc.  I'm mildly interested in seeing if the DoD and federal government learn from this situation, I wonder if new supply chain requirements will be instituted for additional crucial materials (masks, gloves, generic drugs, etc.)  I'm curious if this will be yet another push to diversify supply chains away from China, and if we might even see a small increase in US based manufacturing. 

Sidenote: Commercial real estate is most likely going to get absolutely hammered over the next few years.  I've already heard Carl Icahn is shorting that sector because he feels that companies will no longer place such value on large expensive real estate locations. 

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On a very personal note, if I start working at home a lot more then I need to change my setup so that I can re-purpose my monitors, keyboard and mouse because I CAN work on just the laptop in a pinch but it sucks. Additionally for video calls I would want to adjust my lighting setup somehow because I have standards.

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On 3/20/2020 at 1:46 PM, kuhla said:

On a very personal note, if I start working at home a lot more then I need to change my setup so that I can re-purpose my monitors, keyboard and mouse because I CAN work on just the laptop in a pinch but it sucks. Additionally for video calls I would want to adjust my lighting setup somehow because I have standards.

  1. Plugged in a USB headset to avoid yelling into laptop integrated mic.
  2. Plugged in HDMI to main monitor.
  3. Plugged in a webcam to avoid having to turn towards the laptop.
  4. Plugged in mouse and keyboard.
  5. Adjusted chair more upright.
  6. Dressed like a casual Friday.

Makes such a big difference. I already feel more productive (seriously).

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https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/23/technology/coronavirus-surveillance-tracking-privacy.html?partner=IFTTT

Quote

As countries around the world race to contain the pandemic, many are deploying digital surveillance tools as a means to exert social control, even turning security agency technologies on their own civilians. Health and law enforcement authorities are understandably eager to employ every tool at their disposal to try to hinder the virus — even as the surveillance efforts threaten to alter the precarious balance between public safety and personal privacy on a global scale.

Yet ratcheting up surveillance to combat the pandemic now could permanently open the doors to more invasive forms of snooping later. It is a lesson Americans learned after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, civil liberties experts say.

On the one hand you want to commend countries like South Korea for how well they handled this outbreak and limited the spread of the virus, on the other hand, they utilized substantial spying/tracking tools in order to track down known infected and people who were in contact with them.  Doxxing and other privacy breaches can exacerbate these issues, making matters even worse, the digital equivalent of the town boarding up your home if they think you have the plague. 

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17 minutes ago, Malaphax said:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/23/technology/coronavirus-surveillance-tracking-privacy.html?partner=IFTTT

On the one hand you want to commend countries like South Korea for how well they handled this outbreak and limited the spread of the virus, on the other hand, they utilized substantial spying/tracking tools in order to track down known infected and people who were in contact with them.  Doxxing and other privacy breaches can exacerbate these issues, making matters even worse, the digital equivalent of the town boarding up your home if they think you have the plague. 

Don't forget schools and private businesses too. When you take an asset or install a program from either one you are also inviting them into your home. EDIT: Realized I did not really complete my thought. With the increase in working from home I would also expect them to start leveraging the visibility that comes with this.

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5 hours ago, kuhla said:

Don't forget schools and private businesses too. When you take an asset or install a program from either one you are also inviting them into your home. EDIT: Realized I did not really complete my thought. With the increase in working from home I would also expect them to start leveraging the visibility that comes with this.

Perfect example of what I was talking about....

https://www.businessinsider.com/work-from-home-sneek-webcam-picture-5-minutes-monitor-video-2020-3

Quote

....

In order to keep productivity high while working remotely, some companies are turning to tools like Sneek. The software features a "wall of faces" for each office, which stays on throughout the workday and features constantly-updating photos of workers taken through their laptop camera every one to five minutes.

.....

If a coworker clicks on their face, Sneek's default settings will instantly connect the two workers in a live video call, even if the recipient hasn't clicked "accept."

.....

 

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article - https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/489753-epa-suspends-enforcement-of-environmental-laws-amid-coronavirus

Quote

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a sweeping suspension of its enforcement of environmental laws Thursday, telling companies they would not need to meet environmental standards during the coronavirus outbreak.  

The temporary policy, for which the EPA has set no end date, would allow any number of industries to skirt environmental laws, with the agency saying it will not “seek penalties for noncompliance with routine monitoring and reporting obligations.”

.....

Sad.

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