Any changes in your status, yet, @BradP?
If its time to move upriver, MN has lots of jobs they are hiring for, and no one can be evicted during this period, for any reason. We go on lock down tonight at midnight.
No change yet. i asked a co-worker what they were doing with some tablets and phones they have been fiddling with. She said she was told by her supervisor that they were fr the dispatch department (or at least some of them) but that they weren’t to be used until the government shut us down. We currently have a shelter in place rule for non essential employees but we were waived as essential so they won’t let us use the equipment they have. Other people on the call receive system have been working from home in waives as equipment becomes avail. (we share a big call center together of approx 200 people. There are less than 50 left in the call center). Totally unfair if you ask me to make us work in office when we can work from home. Nothing about our job requires us to be here. Nothing.
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So, yeah. Technically I’m an essential worker. I’m in Queens. Right in the thick of things. Liquor stores are classified as essential. I’ve been delivering wine. I’m only doing 2 or 3 days a week, biking everywhere. I always wear gloves, mask, etc.
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So I was off Sun/Mon/Tue and got a call Tue not to come in and expect a call within 24-48 hours with the next steps. Thursday I picked up a work PC and am now working from home starting tonight 4/3. I’m paid in full, so no loss of income! Yeah! My wife is not so fortunate being furloughed without pay until further notice. My son continues to work very part time at Burger King doing the drive through.
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I have been praying for all of the T1 workers everywhere. You are all warriors and I appreciate all the various jobs you do. You are sacrificing for the rest of you. May God keep you all safe .
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She can apply for unemployment, BradP. This is OK. Its good. If your looking for resources, there is a growing list. My state is releasing model predictions. They say we peak the 1st couple weeks of next month. They expect a slow decline in cases after that. The data is NOT good. So, this will be off, but it gives an estimate. We are still looking at a couple of months here, but we should hit 70 degrees by then and that will help.
Already did. She didn’t earn enough last quarter to qualify sadly. So we are back to where we started with just her SSDI. Oh well.
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Great news! The company decided to pay furloughed workers for a time period so my wife IS getting paid to stay home with only 3 days that were not paid this past pay period 4/1-4/15. I’m so proud of AAA for stepping up and paying all workers whether they are working or not.
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There are many of us outside of health care who had idea what was coming. In does not take a genius to put 2 and 2 together. My first clue was when I heard about a new virus.
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I agree. I still had my dad’s stockpile of hand sanitizer from SARS. We were scared back then. Everyone has seen the movie Outbreak from the 90’s. I recieved communication about it everyday since January. But, I didn’t find that it was easy to communicate with people about in Febuary, not until it hit the media. Even then, it was difficult. It is still difficult to persuade people to stay home. It takes daily effort. Its work.
There will be a 2nd wave, @T2Tom. Do what you can to make sure those around you are emotionally prepared for that. You can’t change other people. All you can do is your best.
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Of course, we all saw it coming, after all hindsight is 20/20
I believe I first noticed a report that a new sars like flu was spreading in China around the first week of Jan. I Talked with my brother (loves to travel around the world of cruise ships) he had heard about it and I wanted to see what his plans were. 14 days later China closed down Wuhan. To me it was a really bad sign that it was public information ( at least some public) and it spread so fast. Big Warning that things could get really bad. Hard to ignore. Glad my brother decided to cancel their cruise around Italy.
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Here’s info from jdrf.
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They are cooking the books, Tom. Be careful moving forward. I think they will see a 2nd wave shortly. What is reported will not be what is actually happening. Public information coming outta China is heavily squewed. China is misbehaving right now, in a variety of ways. They are being opportunistic.
Keep reminding your people not to make travel plans for at least a year. Soooo lucky he didn’t go on that cruise. The timing was just right.
This could be a useful tool for people judging their risk. It the reproduction rate:
Rt, a key measure of how fast the virus is growing
Below is an outdated map, but it was for predicting epidemics per county. It’s important to get an updated one, but some of us live in high-density areas with active infections, so are very cautious, but at the time April 3rd, some areas had very few or no, infections, hence were less likely to see an epidemic. That center strip of the US, more rural and isolated, is safer, at least from contracting the virus:
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Do you have a feel for how valid the rt.live numbers are? Here in WA the rt of 1.4 is not looking good. The media is patting us on the back prematurely. I believe this (if valid) illustrates the complacency we’ve been warned about.
The data is only as good as the data input. I think they use to have a. Saying about that ))
If this is based on limited or no testing and/or the test is faulty , other than the fact the virus has been detected in your area, a person who unknowingly was infected could be standing next to you or a family member
As mentioned, the result is limited by the quality of the data, and some states are better at testing and reporting so that increased testing and better reporting can lead to short term higher R(t) values, even if the actual risk hasn’t changed. That said, I would trust the numbers within limits, and cross-reference it against other sources. That is why the other map might be useful, but even then, it pays to use multiple expert sources for information and to develop understanding, and in the case of this risk, err on the safe side.
For New York, The R(t) is listed as approximately 1, which agrees with the growth rate. Ideally, one would like to see a rate of less than 1 - Germany has a rate of .7, so it is more comfortable opening slowly - to have a decreasing rate of infection. Some states had little chance of a spread, and combined with a low R(t) and basic precautions, returning to work is safer. NYC, on the other hand, has a high infection rate and high density, so even with a decreasing rate of transmission, I would not feel it safe to return to work.
@John58 - I am not seeing WA as being lauded, although it was in the beginning, when the governor - I vaguely remember - took strong measures. If you are seeing praise, it might be for the doing the right things, but it’s not inherently safe. It was one of the first places to see the virus, you have several largish cities, and the protests will undermine the good work being done.
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This is the first time I’ve seen the symbol R(t) being used to represent the reproduction rate of a virus. I presume it is the same thing as R(0), often pronounced as R-naught.
I wish, when it came to disseminating information that impacts public health understanding, the experts would standardize their language or at least post embedded definitions within their narrative. Something like, “R(t) expresses the reproductive rate of the virus and is often written as R(0), interchangeable with R(t),” something that would help the non-epidemiologists among us.