Corona Virus

[GwynnInTheHall]

Georgia opening back up April 27th. Now I know why they choose to set The Walking Dead in that state...…….

[The Feral Slasher]

Georgia opening back up April 27th. Now I know why they choose to set The Walking Dead in that state...…….

At this point it is hard to say what opening up means or what effect it will have. If no one will go to a restaurant or theater or business it won't matter much. What is legal and what people are willing to do are not the same thing at this point. It will be interesting to see how it plays out. Hopefully not tragically

[revo]

Georgia opening back up April 27th. Now I know why they choose to set The Walking Dead in that state...…….

Hahahhahahahaha

[Kevin Seitzer]

Ain't that America....

One of the biggest contributors I've seen toward giving bosses and plant managers unhealthy levels of control over their employees is the way we push undocumented immigrants into the shadow economy, leaving them no place to turn for help without jeopardizing their status in the country. You can bet they're not going to OSHA if that means ICE shows up at the plant the next week.

[revo]

"Kentucky experienced its highest single-day spike in coronavirus cases after protests broke out in the state to lift lockdowns, according to reports.

Gov. Andy Beshear announced there were 273 new cases Sunday, bringing the total to 2,960, news station WCPO reported."

https://nypost.com/2020/04/20/kentucky-sees-highest-spike-in-coronavirus-cases-after-protests/

[Andrewski]

At this point it is hard to say what opening up means or what effect it will have. If no one will go to a restaurant or theater or business it won't matter much. What is legal and what people are willing to do are not the same thing at this point. It will be interesting to see how it plays out. Hopefully not tragically

Rumors are our (yes, I live in Georgia) governor sees that the unemployment funds are fast dwindling and they won't last much longer, so he is allowing the businesses to open that employ many of the types of employees who would be applying for unemployment. Since there is no order requiring those businesses to close, those employees would no longer be eligible for unemployment benefits if they choose to not show up to work.

[revo]

Rumors are our (yes, I live in Georgia) governor sees that the unemployment funds are fast dwindling and they won't last much longer, so he is allowing the businesses to open that employ many of the types of employees who would be applying for unemployment. Since there is no order requiring those businesses to close, those employees would no longer be eligible for unemployment benefits if they choose to not show up to work.

Crazy that the election between Kemp and Abrams could literally cost someone their life.

[Kevin Seitzer]

https://apnews.com/a5077c7227b8eb8b0dc23423c0bbe2b2

A malaria drug widely touted by President Donald Trump for treating the new coronavirus showed no benefit in a large analysis of its use in U.S. veterans hospitals. There were more deaths among those given hydroxychloroquine versus standard care, researchers reported.

Edit to add: This wasn't a controlled trial (which we need), but it's the best study on the topic I've seen so far.

[chancellor]

Ain't that America....

Actually, in my experience, it's not. I've worked in three heavy industries, one light industry, one high-tech industry, and food processing. Of the six, food processing is the outlier - by far - among those I've worked in the US. I'll also say that I've worked extensively in Italy and the UK as well as Latin America, and US worker safety is superior to all the places I worked - except for food processing.

Were there turds for managers in my "good" industries? Yeah, sure. But they were far and few between - say, maybe 5% In food processing? More like 50%.

[The Feral Slasher]

Actually, in my experience, it's not. I've worked in three heavy industries, one light industry, one high-tech industry, and food processing. Of the six, food processing is the outlier - by far - among those I've worked in the US. I'll also say that I've worked extensively in Italy and the UK as well as Latin America, and US worker safety is superior to all the places I worked - except for food processing.

Were there turds for managers in my "good" industries? Yeah, sure. But they were far and few between - say, maybe 5% In food processing? More like 50%.

My comment was less related to "worker safety" and was directed at the "come to work sick because u have no paid sick leave and i might fire you" aspect. I haven't studied this in detail but my understanding is the US is probably worse than most developed countries in this regard. I could be wrong.


edit: or come to work sick since you have no paid sick leave and cant afford to miss a few days pay

[chancellor]

My comment was less related to "worker safety" and was directed at the "come to work sick because u have no paid sick leave and i might fire you" aspect. I haven't studied this in detail but my understanding is the US is probably worse than most developed countries in this regard. I could be wrong.


edit: or come to work sick since you have no paid sick leave and cant afford to miss a few days pay

Got it. I'll still stand behind food processing being worse than all my other industries I've worked in, and by a wide margin.

I'll concur with you in part on paid sick leave. European companies, especially continental companies, have dedicated sick leave programs. US companies, for the most part, do not. Most of the ones I worked for had a PTO (Personal Time Off) program. I typically accumulated 4-5 weeks/year of PTO in my jobs.

OTOH, the "I might fire you" is very much not prevalent in the industries I've worked in - other than food processing.

[Sour Masher]

Got it. I'll still stand behind food processing being worse than all my other industries I've worked in, and by a wide margin.

I'll concur with you in part on paid sick leave. European companies, especially continental companies, have dedicated sick leave programs. US companies, for the most part, do not. Most of the ones I worked for had a PTO (Personal Time Off) program. I typically accumulated 4-5 weeks/year of PTO in my jobs.

OTOH, the "I might fire you" is very much not prevalent in the industries I've worked in - other than food processing.

Upton Sinclair wrote about the horrors of this industry over 100 years ago, in The Jungle. Sad to see it hasn't changed all that much in terms of how they treat workers. He meant to highlight poor treatment of workers, but the main take away most readers had was how gross the handling of their meat was. His novel was instrumental in major reforms for sanitation, including the Meat Inspecting Act, but it didn't lead to the worker reforms he was hoping for. He lamented this saying, "I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach."

[TranaGreg]

and it's no better in Canada ...

Worker dies, hundreds sick as Cargill temporarily closes meat-processing plant at centre of COVID-19 outbreak

COVID-19 outbreak discovered at Vancouver chicken processing plant with 28 cases so far

[Gregg]

April 21 (Reuters) - U.S. coronavirus deaths topped 45,000 on Tuesday doubling in a little over a week and rising by a near-record amount in a single day, according to a Reuters tally.

Doesn't really seem like it is slowing down.

[rhd]

Another stats update as of 7:46 AM today. Last stats were from 4/19 at 7:46 AM, exactly 3 days ago:

- 827,358 cases in US, up from 742,067, a 11.5% increase. That's a smaller increase than last time (15.0%). The increases of the last 6 days give a doubling rate of every 17 days. The US would project to hit 1 mil cases by about April 27. The states w the highest # of cases per capita, in order, are New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Louisiana, Rhode Island and DC. The states w the highest # of tests per capita, in order, are Rhode Island, New York, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Utah, DC, Vermont and New Jersey. As of 4/15, the US has a testing rate of 12.2 per thousand. For comparison, Italy's is 23.1 per thousand and Spain's rate is 19.9 per thousand.
- 45,447 deaths in US, up from 39,295, a 15.7% increase which is a much smaller increase than last time (37.2%). The increases of the last 6 days give a doubling rate of about every 9 days. The US projects to hit 100,000 deaths by about May 2. Every state has now reported a death and American Samoa is the only territory w/o a case. The US mortality rate is now 5.49%, which is higher than last time, (5.30%). The states w the highest # of deaths per capita, in order, are New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Louisiana, Massachusetts and Michigan.
- 2,584,183 cases worldwide, up from 2,350,878, a 9.9% increase which is a smaller increase than last time (12.0%).
- 178,888 deaths worldwide, up from 161.516, a 10.8% increase which is a much smaller increase than last time (18.9%). Mortality rates continue to rise but more slowly. The world mortality rate is 6.92%, up slightly from 6.87%. Italy's mortality rate is 13.40%, up from 13.22%, Belgium's is 14.95%, up from 14.76%, Spain's is 10.42%, about the same as last time (10.44%), France's is 13.16%, up from 12.73%, UK's is 13.43%, down slightly from 13.54% and Germany's is 3.45%, up from 3.16%.
- 215 countries/territories/etc. have confirmed cases w suspected cases in 1 other (North Korea), same as last time. There are only 14 countries, 11 of which are island republics, that have neither reported nor have suspected cases: Lesotho, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Comoros, Kiribati, Marshall Is., Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Samoa, Solomon Is., Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu. The vast majority of countries have at least 1 death, w Vietnam having the most cases w no reported deaths, 268.

Rates of increase seem to be decreasing in earnest now but still no significant change in the slopes of the increase rates. Russia has had a surge in the # of reported cases in the last few weeks.