COVID-19 Megathread 5: The Trumps catch COVID-19

[The Free North]

Uhh...is this not massively concerning to any of the lockdown forever folks?

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-prisons-testing-in-idUSKCN2270RX?taid=5ea4b672e153850001937bf4&utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter

[The Free North]

I'm absolutely livid about the meat processing plants bring forced back open. What protections will there be for the workers? Smithfield in Sioux Falls was already a major hotspot. Most people aren't willing to work meat processing plants, which is why many employee illegal immigrants as well. How are these places going to be staffed? There was no forethought or any real consideration put into this decision. Ugh.

Thats not whats going to happen.

Most plants are shut for 2 weeks or shut indefinitely. Trumps order weakens liability for the big packing companies once they do re-open, but in no way means they're going to open anytime soon.

This is all about making sure Tyson, etc won't be sued whenever they do get a skeleton crew back to work. No one will force workers back against their will. The industry has massive labor issues as it is, that would be suicidal.

[The Free North]

DeBlasio needs a new PR team and needs to just quit while he's behind because everything he does looks awful.

[The Free North]

https://twitter.com/cyrano54/status/1258817290432364546



So....

Does anyone else think we've massively misplayed this. Its inevitable given our lack of information and poor data that models, etc are going to be wrong, but if these stats are anywhere near indicative of the US as a whole (and perhaps are worse given conditions in a packing plant).....

I don't have the data for it, but i'm almost certain the hospitalizations are either people with some sort of pre-existing medical condition or 50+.

Yes, we don't know the full effectiveness of herd immunity, but if a huge chunk of the population already has the disease, has no symptoms much less is going to need to be in the ICU, why not open back up everything if you're young, healthy, and perhaps have a testing requirement too.

If we're in lockdown to prevent overwhelming the medical system, but we know only a certain part of the population will need to use it AND if there is no impending explosion of cases coming because a sizable plurality already is infected, can we not just isolate certain vulnerable groups and let everyone else live their lives outside of that?

Is it really worth losing 20M jobs/month over? Can we not find some sort of a middle ground between open everything or close everything. I mean look at this sh**t:

[The Free North]

And I would note as well that conditions in a packing plant are about as bad for spreading a virus as you can imagine. These workers stand side by side for hours on end, many live with each other nearby as well.

If they're not being overwhelmed by this, you going to a cubicle in an office and a reduced capacity bar won't either.

[The Free North]

So....

Does anyone else think we've massively misplayed this.

No, I don't think meat packers tend to be that elderly. Maybe I'm wrong on that.

Average age at the plant is 40, avg age of hospitalized was 60+. Cant find the tweet, its buried somewhere in my feed

[The Free North]

So....

Does anyone else think we've massively misplayed this.

No, I don't think meat packers tend to be that elderly. Maybe I'm wrong on that.

^This. Meat packers tend to be below fifty, and have a physical job that requires a degree of physical fitness. They are literally the worst possible group to draw the kind of assumptions that The Free North is making. The OP is clearly just looking for data that fits a specific narrative.

The average age at plants across the US is 40 (https://datausa.io/profile/soc/food-processing-workers-all-other#employment). The median US age is 38.

[The Free North]

https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1258782599918637057

What an egregious take.

Re-opening is primarily to benefit the 1%?? Have you seen the stock market lately? its up on the year. Its pushing new highs again. The 1% are doing just fine and most have plenty of savings to get them through this. The people who need to go back to work are the ones living paycheck to paycheck. People working jobs in the service industry or hospitality industry who have been furloughed, especially since we have no UBI bill passed.

My God....

[The Free North]

https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1258782599918637057

What an egregious take.

Re-opening is primarily to benefit the 1%?? Have you seen the stock market lately? its up on the year. Its pushing new highs again. The 1% are doing just fine and most have plenty of savings to get them through this. The people who need to go back to work are the ones living paycheck to paycheck. People working jobs in the service industry or hospitality industry who have been furloughed, especially since we have no UBI bill passed.

My God....

I'm all for making the money printer go brr, thx.

[The Free North]

Something needs to be done about the California menace making decisions that impact the other 90% of us. Cancelling school for the fall semester is unacceptable. Severe repercussions are sorely needed for these traitors.

How DARE they act in the interest of public safety? Disgusting.

Indeed, let the poor burn good and thorough.

[The Free North]

The Vox article above indicates that California has had only about 50% compliance with stay-at-home orders.  There is no way curves will be "crushed" by mitigation procedures that have that have such a low compliance rate.  Lockdowns can only be effective when people observe them.

Anyway, there is still so much we do not know about CoV-19.  We don't know how to vaccinate against it or really treat it systematically.  We don't know how long immunity acquired through exposure lasts.  We don't know much about its mutation rate and patterns.  We still are not doing nearly enough initial testing or contact tracing, our serological tests are still not very accurate, and what immunity rates may presently exist are still quite low.  When most people are still as vulnerable as they are, and when we still know so little about this thing, opening things up to precipitously is like going for a walk during a firestorm.

People are rational actors. If there were mass graves being filled and bodies burned in the streets like 14th century Venice, everyone would stay home because their lives depended on it.

The fact that most people aren't afraid to go outside should tell you enough about the current state of affairs. An argument from ignorance here is not enough to prove the contrary, particularly given the economic ramifications of making everyone live inside forever.

[The Free North]

A country full of stupidity:

For the past 6 weeks we've seen a parade of these images and references to things like Georgia marching its citizens off to the morgue by opening up. The death rate in the US continues to go down, young people do not die from this, and things like 'we are so screwed' needlessly fear-mongers a population that is exhausted from the past quarters social and economic malaise.

Grow up.

[The Free North]

There will either be a massive spike in cases coming up, or we just shut down part of the economy for two months for no reason.

[The Free North]

So one of two things will happen:

1. There are minimal spikes in Covid cases and the sham will be fully exposed.
2. There will be a massive spike in Covid cases, essentially undoing any of the good work that lockdowns may have done.

In either case, you will never get a second lockdown after the absolute fukcery of the last two months.

Stop!

He's 100% right.

[The Free North]

Jeez, I wonder if the spike in cases we've seen had anything to do with the tens of thousands of people in the streets protesting and looting.

Its as if Trump's refusal to not wear a mask, hold rallies, and generally deny any wrongdoing has inspired the left to counter with their own levels of stupidity.