If the Coronavirus is the "new normal" to expect forever, what happened to all the other viruses that were destined to end all of us?

There's a thread for this line of discussion....speculation isn't particularly useful on this one.

https://texags.com/forums/16/topics/3091528

BTW - only time will tell what set all of this off.

Cassius said:

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Flu tapers off dramatically by April.

This thing is just now getting here. It'll get killed off before it gets started simply by the weather. It'll follow the same pattern as normal flu.

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Singapore and Philippines say hi. Both the CDC, WHO, and Singapore's experts say no impact on this by temperature.

YouBet said:

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Nuclear Scramjet said:

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IrishTxAggie said:

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My assessment a few pages back

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Coronavirus is ultimately going to show large corporations how pointless it is to make employees come into huge offices every ****ing day when they realize there is no loss of productivity and actually an increase in productivity while working from home. Commercial office building space could take a hit over the next few years.

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I absolutely agree with this. Once companies see that corporate employees are almost as productive as they were in the office, you're going to see waves of them cutting costs from eliminating expensive, prime office space. The era of the big skyscraper full of offices and dehumanizing cubicles will hopefully come to an end.

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With Pepsi and Frito-Lay apparently declaring WFH, that will cause peer pressure and a domino effect here in DFW. I fully expect my company will be next at least for "non-essential" jobs. Will be interesting in our case because we keep adding buildings and square footage to our campus with zero thought to WFH policies or even community work space. We are very behind the times when it comes to some things.

My boss is adamantly opposed to WFH and has actually been trying to propose more stringent rules against it. I've argued with him until I'm blue in the face since I have mostly millennials on my teams who expect it. I think he's about to get a lesson in reality. I was already going to ignore his policy anyway, but I'm guessing this is going to scrap his plans with less WFH by the end of it all.

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Two thoughts:

1. I love the idea of WFH for the responsible - the issue isn't the idea it's the people who are not responsible. Is that a management issue, maybe? I think it's more of a hiring issue. Frankly, the ones who work well from home also work hard in the office. However, the ones that are wasting time at work literally disappear when at home... so in that sense I need them in the office.

2. Additionally, if WFH is the new trend I'll find it less appealing to hire or retain old people who can't figure out technology on their own. I spend tons of time troubleshooting headsets connecting to online meetings, software glitches that require a page refresh, and if it gets more complicated than that - the world shuts down. If Technology built to speed your over the phone/online meeting sales up, slows you down to a crawl, you may find yourself in the wrong job.

In the end this may usher out the olds who can't adapt and bring in the new.

Nuclear Scramjet said:

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This is why this thing is a bigger deal than normal. The flu is accounted for in our need for ICU beds every year. This disease is not and has a much higher demand for beds. It could quickly overwhelm our healthcare system.

It's not apocalypse level obviously, but this will seriously strain our healthcare system and show every last bit of rot in the pillars holding up society. Every problem where we have been kicking the can down the road may come to light. In the long term this will probably end up being a good thing but the short term pain will be large.

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They are having to buy a motel up in Seattle to house patients. Think about that... they are already running out of room and the situation hasn't even gotten that serious up there yet.

My guess is that vacant industrial warehouses with large open floors will soon become makeshift hospital areas.

BTW, a hotel housing Chinese COVID patients collapsed and killed a lot of them. Bold strategy by China to handle afflicted patients.

tmollre said:

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Montgomery County, Texas according to this:

https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6

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It might be right, but it also might be a glitch.

There have been others that usually clear on the next update. A couple of day ago the total number of cases showed almost 3 million, but all of the individual numbers were no where that when added up. When they updated, the total was fixed.

Edit: According to KPRC, the case in Montgomery County is "under investigation". Nothing has been confirmed.

revvie said:

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looking at the numbers. I would like to know what the Koreans are doing different than the Italians. Demographics, early testing, treatment protocols. Similar number of cases, vastly different outcomes. Haven't listened or read anything regarding this.

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South Korea is testing everyone. So I think their numbers are probably more indicative of the true impact. And their 0.5% cfr is what CDC is now using in its estimates and models.

AG 2000' said:

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Cassius said:

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Flu tapers off dramatically by April.

This thing is just now getting here. It'll get killed off before it gets started simply by the weather. It'll follow the same pattern as normal flu.

---

Singapore and Philippines say hi. Both the CDC, WHO, and Singapore's experts say no impact on this by temperature.

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Damn.

Premium said:

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YouBet said:

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Nuclear Scramjet said:

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IrishTxAggie said:

---

My assessment a few pages back

Quote:

---

Coronavirus is ultimately going to show large corporations how pointless it is to make employees come into huge offices every ****ing day when they realize there is no loss of productivity and actually an increase in productivity while working from home. Commercial office building space could take a hit over the next few years.

---

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I absolutely agree with this. Once companies see that corporate employees are almost as productive as they were in the office, you're going to see waves of them cutting costs from eliminating expensive, prime office space. The era of the big skyscraper full of offices and dehumanizing cubicles will hopefully come to an end.

---

With Pepsi and Frito-Lay apparently declaring WFH, that will cause peer pressure and a domino effect here in DFW. I fully expect my company will be next at least for "non-essential" jobs. Will be interesting in our case because we keep adding buildings and square footage to our campus with zero thought to WFH policies or even community work space. We are very behind the times when it comes to some things.

My boss is adamantly opposed to WFH and has actually been trying to propose more stringent rules against it. I've argued with him until I'm blue in the face since I have mostly millennials on my teams who expect it. I think he's about to get a lesson in reality. I was already going to ignore his policy anyway, but I'm guessing this is going to scrap his plans with less WFH by the end of it all.

---

Two thoughts:

1. I love the idea of WFH for the responsible - the issue isn't the idea it's the people who are not responsible. Is that a management issue, maybe? I think it's more of a hiring issue. Frankly, the ones who work well from home also work hard in the office. However, the ones that are wasting time at work literally disappear when at home... so in that sense I need them in the office.

2. Additionally, if WFH is the new trend I'll find it less appealing to hire or retain old people who can't figure out technology on their own. I spend tons of time troubleshooting headsets connecting to online meetings, software glitches that require a page refresh, and if it gets more complicated than that - the world shuts down. If Technology built to speed your over the phone/online meeting sales up, slows you down to a crawl, you may find yourself in the wrong job.

In the end this may usher out the olds who can't adapt and bring in the new.

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I agree. On #1, the challenge for most managers is understanding what their employees are actually doing at home if you have a job that doesn't necessarily produce tangible output every day. It gives them angst if they can't physically see folks to at least know they are in the office and "working".

On #2, if we move this way I absolutely need a better application than WebEx. It's what we use at work and it's complete trash and only works about 50% of the time.

Gotta love the posters who's only mission in life is to try to refute any and all possible good news.

Seems like we get at least one new one showing up every day now.

Muy said:

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If the Coronavirus is the "new normal" to expect forever, what happened to all the other viruses that were destined to end all of us?

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I believe the reason the flu season has been so bad in recent years is due to 2009-H1N1. It's basically doubled the flu numbers.

Yeah -- a big barrier to companies doing this is getting a good, stable platform setup where one can seamlessly work.

My gf works for a fairly large company, and I'd say 50% of the time when she's trying to login remotely to do work she runs into some kind of hurdle... Either can't connect, can't access certain files, speed is a crawl, etc... From what I've heard, this is pretty common.

Zoom. I honestly think SalesForce will throw their hat further into the ring on this type of engagement soon

Has anyone heard about drive through evaluation here? I think it is a great idea.

People aren't all packed in a waiting room spreading the disease to everyone.

If you are mildly sick, you go home an quarantine yourself. If you are really sick (low O2, fever, coughing, etc.) Then you can go to a treatment center.

The doctors are not as exposed either.

Show me the receipts. You have a habit of posting the worst news you can find and her assumptions are not backed up by anything in that Twitter chain.

Drive through makes a lot of sense.

IrishTxAggie said:

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Zoom. I honestly think SalesForce will throw their hat further into the ring on this type of engagement soon

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We use Salesforce and Ring Central (with meetings). People can't figure out the meetings to save their life - it is basically Zoom (powered by Zoom). Also just introduced Calendly and only a few people get how it works after one on one trainings. We also use Microsoft Teams and only a handful use it successfully- if it turns into a call on Teams, headset connection issues.... always

I thought this was an amazing idea. I'm not sure how the testing works though - I assume they take a sample and you go quarantine at home and then they tell you the results?

Teams works surprisingly well. Skype was complete ****

Notice the high percentage with no symptoms.

Heard good things about Slack for anyone that needs to start exploring these avenues over the coming weeks/months.

HouAggie2007 said:

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Teams works surprisingly well. Skype was complete ****

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I agree, but if it turns into a video chat or phone chat within teams it's the same story with Ring Central meetings. It's a mystery to people on how audio and speaking works through a computer via settings on the computer or within the app.

If you have explosive diarrhea, you won't want TP after a few days.

Wonder what the optimal ratio of negative to positive test returns are for characterizing.

IrishTxAggie said:

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Heard good things about Slack for anyone that needs to start exploring these avenues over the coming weeks/months.

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My company has been using slack for over a year and it's great for text messaging, group texts etc. As for actual conference calls or even peer to peer calling it's all dependent on your PC (you'll run into a lot of echo issues).

WebEx has gotten better but still has a long way to go. Skype is absolute garbage and the interface looks like it was designed in the 90's (probably was).

I've worked from home for over 15 years and it's been fantastic (first 11 years from an office so I still appreciate and never take it for granted). Best part is having your internet and cell bills covered by your employer.

Absolute ****show in Italy right now

https://www.lastampa.it/cronaca/2020/03/07/news/coronavirus-il-giro-di-allarme-dei-medici-della-lombardia-rischiamo-una-disastrosa-calamita-sanitaria-1.38563465

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Age limits for ICU

According to the doctors of the Italian Society of Anesthesia, Analgesia, Resuscitation and Intensive Care (Siaarti) "it may be necessary to put an age limit on entry into the ICU. It is not a question of making merely valuable choices, but of reserving resources that could be very scarce to those who have the greatest chance of survival first and secondly to those who may have more years of life saved, with a view to maximizing the benefits for the most number of people". They write it in the technical document "Recommendations of clinical ethics for admission to intensive treatments and for their suspension, in exceptional conditions of imbalance between needs and available resources". This text was also distributed and published in full on the Siaarti website, and is addressed to doctors. According to the scientific society, the document aims "to provide support to the anesthesiologists-resuscitators currently engaged in managing in the front line" the maxi-emergency "which is unprecedented in terms of features and proportions".

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What major motion picture most closely resembles how this is playing out?

sawthemoffxx said:

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Absolute ****show in Italy right now

https://www.lastampa.it/cronaca/2020/03/07/news/coronavirus-il-giro-di-allarme-dei-medici-della-lombardia-rischiamo-una-disastrosa-calamita-sanitaria-1.38563465

Quote:

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Age limits for ICU

According to the doctors of the Italian Society of Anesthesia, Analgesia, Resuscitation and Intensive Care (Siaarti) "it may be necessary to put an age limit on entry into the ICU. It is not a question of making merely valuable choices, but of reserving resources that could be very scarce to those who have the greatest chance of survival first and secondly to those who may have more years of life saved, with a view to maximizing the benefits for the most number of people". They write it in the technical document "Recommendations of clinical ethics for admission to intensive treatments and for their suspension, in exceptional conditions of imbalance between needs and available resources". This text was also distributed and published in full on the Siaarti website, and is addressed to doctors. According to the scientific society, the document aims "to provide support to the anesthesiologists-resuscitators currently engaged in managing in the front line" the maxi-emergency "which is unprecedented in terms of features and proportions".

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Bernie drooling at the thought of this here.

sawthemoffxx said:

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Absolute ****show in Italy right now

https://www.lastampa.it/cronaca/2020/03/07/news/coronavirus-il-giro-di-allarme-dei-medici-della-lombardia-rischiamo-una-disastrosa-calamita-sanitaria-1.38563465

Quote:

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Age limits for ICU

According to the doctors of the Italian Society of Anesthesia, Analgesia, Resuscitation and Intensive Care (Siaarti) "it may be necessary to put an age limit on entry into the ICU. It is not a question of making merely valuable choices, but of reserving resources that could be very scarce to those who have the greatest chance of survival first and secondly to those who may have more years of life saved, with a view to maximizing the benefits for the most number of people". They write it in the technical document "Recommendations of clinical ethics for admission to intensive treatments and for their suspension, in exceptional conditions of imbalance between needs and available resources". This text was also distributed and published in full on the Siaarti website, and is addressed to doctors. According to the scientific society, the document aims "to provide support to the anesthesiologists-resuscitators currently engaged in managing in the front line" the maxi-emergency "which is unprecedented in terms of features and proportions".

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Love that govt health care. Grandpa not treated, but Bernie goes to front of line.

YouBet said:

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sawthemoffxx said:

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Absolute ****show in Italy right now

https://www.lastampa.it/cronaca/2020/03/07/news/coronavirus-il-giro-di-allarme-dei-medici-della-lombardia-rischiamo-una-disastrosa-calamita-sanitaria-1.38563465

Quote:

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Age limits for ICU

According to the doctors of the Italian Society of Anesthesia, Analgesia, Resuscitation and Intensive Care (Siaarti) "it may be necessary to put an age limit on entry into the ICU. It is not a question of making merely valuable choices, but of reserving resources that could be very scarce to those who have the greatest chance of survival first and secondly to those who may have more years of life saved, with a view to maximizing the benefits for the most number of people". They write it in the technical document "Recommendations of clinical ethics for admission to intensive treatments and for their suspension, in exceptional conditions of imbalance between needs and available resources". This text was also distributed and published in full on the Siaarti website, and is addressed to doctors. According to the scientific society, the document aims "to provide support to the anesthesiologists-resuscitators currently engaged in managing in the front line" the maxi-emergency "which is unprecedented in terms of features and proportions".

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Bernie drooling at the thought of this here.

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Not sure why this needs to be political? The reality is there will not be enough hospital beds. There were not enough in Wuhan and they had to build a new hospital.

The same thing is happening in Italy and is going to happen here and the rest of Europe most likely.