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COVID-19

ABMD

Bullets don't fly without Supply
Some companies gave sick days for people who had or had been exposed to COVID early on, not sure how many still are, I know one person who told his manager he had been around a person that had tested positive for COVID, he was given 14 days paid sick leave just like that. I have a friend who has a son who works at a company close to me, twice during the past 6 months he felt ill at work displaying COVID symptoms, he was sent home and under their policy was given COVID sick leave until a negative test came back.
Same with my company. They have special sick pay for COVID positive employees.
 

Jim123

DD-214 in hand and I'm gonna party like it's 1998
pilot
Today is the year anniversary of the late Dr. Li blowing the whistle on the CHYCAPs covering up the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan. Of course, the official word from the Chinese government is "we didn't mean all that bad stuff we said about him."

Our politicians suck but theirs suck a lot worse.

Of course it's hard to find non- Made in China stuff when you walk in to Home Depot or Walmart (or go online on Amazon) and we just elected some more of our politicians...

 
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DanMa1156

Is it baseball season yet?
pilot
Contributor
The same news that said the riots were just "peaceful protests"? Most major news outlets have their own agenda when it comes to this virus. I'll believe what I see with my own 2 eyes, again, where I live in MD you aren't going into any store or building without a face covering. If you're outside and not within 6ft of another human for more than 15 minutes why wear a mask? Should I wear a mask while jogging or riding my bike, surf fishing on the beach, playing in the park with my kids?

I've been clear from the beginning of my posts that:
  1. I am currently removed from seeing America firsthand due to being overseas.
  2. I recognize that the news media has its own biases.
However, my friends' posts (probably mostly liberal) and my family's anecdotes (MAGA-light types with one liberal) seem to match what the news reports: mask wearing, while more common than it was in the past, is still not anywhere close to 100%.

I don't wear mine while jogging or riding a bike, but I keep one on me in case I have to duck into a store or when I come back to the base and approach the sentry to present my ID. However, since you asked, I'd say that yes, most Japanese people do wear a mask doing all those activities you mentioned. As I've stated before, it's becoming more common in my opinion to see more Japanese not wear a mask, but still the overwhelming majority (85-90%) are wearing them at all times when outside.
 

wink

War Hoover NFO.
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
Why we haven't passed any laws that require workers to get paid sick days regardless of part / full time employment status instead of writing checks every 6 months is beyond me.
Some companies gave sick days for people who had or had been exposed to COVID early on, not sure how many still are, I know one person who told his manager he had been around a person that had tested positive for COVID, he was given 14 days paid sick leave just like that. I have a friend who has a son who works at a company close to me, twice during the past 6 months he felt ill at work displaying COVID symptoms, he was sent home and under their policy was given COVID sick leave until a negative test came back.
Same with my company. They have special sick pay for COVID positive employees.
FFCRA was one of the very first legislative responses to the pandemic. I am besieged by information about it by my wife's firm contract PEO. Covered employers have to be careful not to violate the law. Employees need only SAY they have symptoms and they can get paid time off from covered employers. I suspect that lots of employees do not know their benefits under this Act. All you hear about in the press is the relief checks. People like free cash. Feel free to pass on this info to friends and family. Especially is they are business owners. They need to steer clear of the FEDS and employee law suits.

 

exNavyOffRec

Well-Known Member
FFCRA was one of the very first legislative responses to the pandemic. I am besieged by information about it by my wife's firm contract PEO. Covered employers have to be careful not to violate the law. Employees need only SAY they have symptoms and they can get paid time off from covered employers. I suspect that lots of employees do not know their benefits under this Act. All you hear about in the press is the relief checks. People like free cash. Feel free to pass on this info to friends and family. Especially is they are business owners. They need to steer clear of the FEDS and employee law suits.

The guy I know who told his manager he was exposed from a friend was in the middle of his 14 days off when that was introduced, some companies were good enough to do the right thing.
 

DanMa1156

Is it baseball season yet?
pilot
Contributor
I've been clear from the beginning of my posts that:
  1. I am currently removed from seeing America firsthand due to being overseas.
  2. I recognize that the news media has its own biases.
However, my friends' posts (probably mostly liberal) and my family's anecdotes (MAGA-light types with one liberal) seem to match what the news reports: mask wearing, while more common than it was in the past, is still not anywhere close to 100%.

I don't wear mine while jogging or riding a bike, but I keep one on me in case I have to duck into a store or when I come back to the base and approach the sentry to present my ID. However, since you asked, I'd say that yes, most Japanese people do wear a mask doing all those activities you mentioned. As I've stated before, it's becoming more common in my opinion to see more Japanese not wear a mask, but still the overwhelming majority (85-90%) are wearing them at all times when outside.

Unscientific but for those who care, I went out today to grab some take out and get a couple groceries. Of the hundreds of people I saw/passed, three people didn't have a mask on, one on the train, a young woman maybe early 30s; the second was a man entering the grocery store on his cell phone, and the third was a guy on the street walking. Everyone else: biking, walking, jogging, shopping were all in masks. FWIW, the area I went to was fairly urban so the streets themselves are certainly more packed than your standard American suburban street.
 

Sonog

Well-Known Member
pilot
The flu has had a vaccine for decades. It’s not even well known if flu shots work in people aged over 65. Besides, flu shot numbers haven’t even doubled from 2019.

So if you want to credit a 118% reduction in flu cases this year due to covid mitigation measures, how come these same measures that for all intents and purposes are eradicating the flu are seemingly so ineffective against covid?

P.S. Isn’t it more enlightening to engage I’m informed discussion instead of ad hominem attacks?

View attachment 28679

Yea dude I just had to toss a dart in the form of a a sick tommy boy ref. Admittedly I have not been following this thread closely.

Think of it this way, the flu without covid mitigations in place was never packing ICUs. COVID mitigations on top of the vaccine bring flu numbers drastically lower.
 

exNavyOffRec

Well-Known Member
Unscientific but for those who care, I went out today to grab some take out and get a couple groceries. Of the hundreds of people I saw/passed, three people didn't have a mask on, one on the train, a young woman maybe early 30s; the second was a man entering the grocery store on his cell phone, and the third was a guy on the street walking. Everyone else: biking, walking, jogging, shopping were all in masks. FWIW, the area I went to was fairly urban so the streets themselves are certainly more packed than your standard American suburban street.

I went into town today (late afternoon), even though my state is liberal where I live is more conservative and I also say everyone wearing a mask in the store, they took them off as they were loading groceries into their cars, also unscientific just an observation.
 

SlickAg

Registered User
pilot
Think of it this way, the flu without covid mitigations in place was never packing ICUs. COVID mitigations on top of the vaccine bring flu numbers drastically lower.
Check out these articles from 2018 (with a flu shot thought to be 30% effective).

“The 2017-2018 influenza epidemic is sending people to hospitals and urgent-care centers in every state, and medical centers are responding with extraordinary measures: asking staff to work overtime, setting up triage tents, restricting friends and family visits and canceling elective surgeries, to name a few.”

“The flu has especially affected hospital patients with other health issues, says Braciszewski, who works with cardiac patients. “Almost every patient in the hospital has the flu, and it’s making their pre-existing conditions worse,” she says. “More and more patients are needing mechanical ventilation due to respiratory failure from the flu and other rampant upper respiratory infections.””

“Camins says flu activity at UAB Hospital was slightly lower this week than last week, but that it’s too early to know if the worst has come and gone.
“It’s slowing down, thank God, but there have been some seasons that have actually had two peaks—so we really don’t know what the next few months will be like,” he says. “We’ve already had three times the volume of the peak from last year in Jefferson County, and I think we’re going to end up quadrupling it by the time we finally get all the data in.””


“The flu is wreaking havoc across California and now pushing Bay Area hospitals past capacity as patients are overcome by their symptoms.”

“The CDC is now saying this season's flu vaccine is 30 percent effective, up from the original thought of just 10 percent.“


“Hospitals throughout Santa Clara County are grappling with an unusually lethal flu season that has led to hospitalizations rivaling those of the 2009 "swine flu" pandemic.”

“El Camino Hospital's inpatient admissions -- both at the Mountain View and Los Gatos campuses -- are up 30 percent compared to last year, maxing out the hospital's bed capacity through the beginning of January, according to Daniel Shin, medical director of quality and patient safety at El Camino.

The number of inpatient admissions put this year's flu season on par with 2009, during the height of the swine flu pandemic, Shin said.”

 

Sonog

Well-Known Member
pilot
Check out these articles from 2018 (with a flu shot thought to be 30% effective).

“The 2017-2018 influenza epidemic is sending people to hospitals and urgent-care centers in every state, and medical centers are responding with extraordinary measures: asking staff to work overtime, setting up triage tents, restricting friends and family visits and canceling elective surgeries, to name a few.”

“The flu has especially affected hospital patients with other health issues, says Braciszewski, who works with cardiac patients. “Almost every patient in the hospital has the flu, and it’s making their pre-existing conditions worse,” she says. “More and more patients are needing mechanical ventilation due to respiratory failure from the flu and other rampant upper respiratory infections.””

“Camins says flu activity at UAB Hospital was slightly lower this week than last week, but that it’s too early to know if the worst has come and gone.
“It’s slowing down, thank God, but there have been some seasons that have actually had two peaks—so we really don’t know what the next few months will be like,” he says. “We’ve already had three times the volume of the peak from last year in Jefferson County, and I think we’re going to end up quadrupling it by the time we finally get all the data in.””


“The flu is wreaking havoc across California and now pushing Bay Area hospitals past capacity as patients are overcome by their symptoms.”

“The CDC is now saying this season's flu vaccine is 30 percent effective, up from the original thought of just 10 percent.“


“Hospitals throughout Santa Clara County are grappling with an unusually lethal flu season that has led to hospitalizations rivaling those of the 2009 "swine flu" pandemic.”

“El Camino Hospital's inpatient admissions -- both at the Mountain View and Los Gatos campuses -- are up 30 percent compared to last year, maxing out the hospital's bed capacity through the beginning of January, according to Daniel Shin, medical director of quality and patient safety at El Camino.

The number of inpatient admissions put this year's flu season on par with 2009, during the height of the swine flu pandemic, Shin said.”


That's flu pandemics at their worst, with a vaccine, and no one really giving a shit. We're at capacity ICU in many places now from COVID, with many more people dying, and with at least half of this country giving a shit. There would be A LOT more dead through triage alone if we let this thing run completely rampant with NO mitigations.
 

SlickAg

Registered User
pilot
That's flu pandemics at their worst, with a vaccine, and no one really giving a shit. We're at capacity ICU in many places now from COVID, with many more people dying, and with at least half of this country giving a shit. There would be A LOT more dead through triage alone if we let this thing run completely rampant with NO mitigations.
You said it was never “packing ICUs”. Okay...none of those articles specifically cite ICUs but they DO talk about hospitals being overwhelmed with patients. This wasn’t even that bad of a flu season compared to the swine flu in 2009. Read this other article from Time (some excerpts below) and replace flu with covid and see if anything sounds sort of familiar.

“The CDC has called the 2017-2018 flu an epidemic, but notes that it technically meets that designation just about every year. “We’re at the peak of it now, and we’ll probably see it go below the baseline in several months,” Jernigan said during the briefing. “So, yes, [we’re] definitely in an epidemic, but that’s happens every year in the United States and in the Northern Hemisphere with influenza.””

““Flu, while causing mild disease in a lot of people, can also cause severe disease and death in others,” Jernigan said during the briefing.The flu may also exacerbate existing chronic conditions, particularly among older adults, which can lead to complications and death.”

“Getting the flu shot and staying home if you’re sick are two of the most important ways to reduce transmission. But the CDC says it’s also important to wash your hands frequently, cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze and wipe down surfaces that may have come into contact with contagion, as flu germs can live on them for up to 24 hours.”

“If you’re sick with the flu, the CDC recommends staying home from school or work for at least 24 hours after your fever subsides. Most people are at peak contagiousness in the three or four days after becoming sick, according to the CDC, but you may be able to infect others from a day before to seven days after developing symptoms.”

 

Spekkio

He bowls overhand.
Thanks I didn't know about that, but it still falls way short.

The big box essential retailers and grocery stores have more than 500 employees, so they're not eligible. Fast food chain workers aren't eligible for the same reason. And if you're working at a local restaurant for tips, that $2.13 per hour upped to minimum wage isn't going to go very far.

By and large these are the types of employees that are doing in-person business during the pandemic.
 

BigRed389

Registered User
None
Thanks I didn't know about that, but it still falls way short.

The big box essential retailers and grocery stores have more than 500 employees, so they're not eligible. Fast food chain workers aren't eligible for the same reason. And if you're working at a local restaurant for tips, that $2.13 per hour upped to minimum wage isn't going to go very far.

By and large these are the types of employees that are doing in-person business during the pandemic.

Yeah while we’re talking about other country’s responses, this is another one of the things Australia did pretty well that I could see.

They relief in place to ensure people could stay home, could get tested to assist with contact tracing (which didn’t use smartphone data trackers or anything) and control efforts.

The other thing they did with that was to ramp up numbers for essential industries like grocery workers, so if you were looking for a job and say your business was no longer viable, they’d sync you up with an essential industry so they could operate with a reserve after cleaning in case they had an outbreak.

A lot easier when you only have 2-3 really big states comparable with ours though, and a handful of much smaller ones.
 

exNavyOffRec

Well-Known Member
Thanks I didn't know about that, but it still falls way short.

The big box essential retailers and grocery stores have more than 500 employees, so they're not eligible. Fast food chain workers aren't eligible for the same reason. And if you're working at a local restaurant for tips, that $2.13 per hour upped to minimum wage isn't going to go very far.

By and large these are the types of employees that are doing in-person business during the pandemic.
Several states have laws where if you work at a restaurant you are paid minimum wage and then you get tips on top of that. That is why before covid those who would work in good restaurants around me would make really good money, granted you are on your feet for hours and hours but you can do well.
 
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