The Coronavirus thread

Quote: Pacomartin

The 26 Schengen countries are: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.

The White House further specified that the ban applied to foreign nationals who have visited 26 countries in Europe that allow unrestricted movement among them.

The EU countries are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.

Members of EU but not on Schengen are: Bulgaria, Finland, Romania, Ireland.

Members of Schengen but not in EU are: Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein, Switzerland

UK is not on either list since Brexit.

Earlier today the Governor of Ohio (Republican Mike DeWine) stood next to Ohio Department of Health Director Amy Acton while Acton told the media that she estimates that 1% of the Ohio population already has coronavirus. That's 100,000 people.

If she's correct... then restricting flights to/from Europe is pointless, futile, and silly.

Quote: reno

Earlier today the Governor of Ohio (Republican Mike DeWine) stood next to Ohio Department of Health Director Amy Acton while Acton told the media that she estimates that 1% of the Ohio population already has coronavirus. That's 100,000 people.

If she's correct... then restricting flights to/from Europe is pointless, futile, and silly.

IF IT IS CORRECT. Reality is it is a guesstimate.

Quote: reno

Earlier today the Governor of Ohio (Republican Mike DeWine) stood next to Ohio Department of Health Director Amy Acton while Acton told the media that she estimates that 1% of the Ohio population already has coronavirus. That's 100,000 people.

If she's correct... then restricting flights to/from Europe is pointless, futile, and silly.

I agree
We don't have the foggiest idea how many have the virus due to a lack of testing kits
Only 11k in this country have been tested since this all started
South Korea tests 10k a day!!!!!!

Quote: kenarman

I hope you are right and we can both watch this evolve. It is rather nice to have a conversation on this board without it turning into name calling nonsense. Good luck at home, I am driving to Vancouver for the weekend to spend the day at the casino in Richmond which will be about 80% Asian.

Yes I agree, thanks for the civil discussion.

I should add that I am truly speaking from a position of great privilege on this. I have a cushy tech job, myself and my entire org can work pretty effectively from home. We actually don't get very much sick leave (all one PTO bucket and I get about 3.5 weeks/year), but we do get a big chunk of unpaid PTO to use if needed, and our jobs are in demand so really no risk of being let go if we need to use it. Plus we get paid a lot, and have lots of reserves (at least anyone with any sense does). My wife is a stay at home mom so we don't depend on outside childcare.

So I empathize with those who are in a much worse situation than I am with respect to work, no paid sick leave, facing the prospect of reduced hours and losing child care. It's definitely going to suck. My position is that it's worth it for the greater good. Lives will be saved by social isolation. Lives will be disrupted by all the measures happening now, and the worst off will be facing hunger and foreclosure/eviction. Thinking really worse case, it's conceivable some in poverty could die of starvation, let's hope that doesn't happen. Ethically it's tough for sure.

Quote: terapined

We don't have the foggiest idea how many have the virus due to a lack of testing kits
Only 11k in this country have been tested since this all started
South Korea tests 10k a day!!!!!!

The federal government's CDC tested 77 people this week. The Utah Jazz basketball team tested 58 people this week.

There is a lot of talk about the need for workers to be paid even if they do not go to work because of an illness or possible illness. There are tens of millions of Americans that will experience hardship if they miss a two week paycheck.
If the government wants to use tax dollars (which will be dwindling significantly!) to pay non workers that is one thing. But I've heard politicians inferring that businesses should keep paying their workers who don't show up. I wonder where the politicians think the businesses get the money from to pay the workers?

Quote: SOOPOO

There is a lot of talk about the need for workers to be paid even if they do not go to work because of an illness or possible illness. There are tens of millions of Americans that will experience hardship if they miss a two week paycheck.
If the government wants to use tax dollars (which will be dwindling significantly!) to pay non workers that is one thing. But I've heard politicians inferring that businesses should keep paying their workers who don't show up. I wonder where the politicians think the businesses get the money from to pay the workers?

There are several proposals (and off the cuff ideas) out there.

One is for mandatory sick days, which would force employers to grant paid sick days to employees (which employees could use as needed including for pandemics). I think this was voted down (not 100%).

There is some talk (I don't think anything official) of the government giving pay to employees who are forced to be laid off or furloughed due to their industry being shutdown by force.

If the government shuts down the airlines (which is appearing more likely withing the next two weeks) there will probably be more pushes for this as the airlines have power (and were able to accomplish something similar after 9/11 for a mini "bailout" to cover the costs during the shutdown....) My guess is, the airlines will be taken care of for sure, other industries maybe if the government mandates that they be shut down.

I don't know of any proposal out there forcing companies to continue to pay without government reimbursement?

I think all employers should grant at least 10 sick days a year (preferably more, and allow rollover year to year), so I do not think the sick day proposal is unreasonable.

As for bailouts to fund employees who are furloughed due to government orders? I think it is reasonable since the government is ordering the industry shutdown.

Quote: terapined

If somebody other than Donald Trump were in the White House, the coronavirus crisis would not be unfolding this way.

His idea of leadership during this crisis is to downplay the risk, and then blame Democrats & the media when the virus spirals out of control.

Based upon this tweet, (from Monday!) you'd think the virus wasn't dangerous enough to justify bold action. But 2 days later, he shuts down flights to Europe...

Quote: Gandler

As for bailouts to fund employees who are furloughed due to government orders? I think it is reasonable since the government is ordering the industry shutdown.

The Federal Reserve spent $1.5 trillion today to help the stock market. Perhaps some of that capital could be allocated to help workers?

Quote: reno

The Federal Reserve spent $1.5 trillion today to help the stock market. Perhaps some of that capital could be allocated to help workers?

I agree.