Cool and damp. [39F and 99%RH] Of course.
It stayed a bit coolish and dampish all day yesterday, although the rain mostly stayed away. I’m hoping for no rain today. Temps were 44F when I went to bed.
Busy week for me, and it didn’t leave much time for preps. I am feeling caught off guard by the sudden change in the china virus status. Fortunately the extreme case has the same preps as our old friend ebola, without the blood. Unfortunately, I think people won’t be as freaked out without the whole ‘sh!tting yourself to death while your eyes bleed’ aspects and won’t isolate themselves appropriately.
I don’t have anywhere near enough PPEs to interact with people in a mostly normal way if that is what’s needed. I intended to severely limit any contact at all, not don a mask and go shopping….
I guess we’ll see how things progress, but we should have at least a couple of days before any panic starts here. Think hard about stocking up on some stuff, like any masks, tyvek, bleach, wipes and hand sanitizer, and snivel gear for dealing with flu symptoms. I haven’t seen much about actually treatment/care for patients, but you can be sure that it won’t take long if there is an outbreak to saturate available care facilities. I don’t even know if we ever got restocked on IV fluids after the shortage. Puerto Rico has had their own issues and that’s where most of it came from.
I know our Habitat ReStore has shelves full of 3M surgical style face masks and they are cheap. I’ve already bought what I thought was a good amount, but now I want more. I don’t think there will be a run on them at the ReStore. (or anywhere in the US, yet). That said, I’m headed there today and I am going to stock up if they’re still on the shelf.
I’m going to treat this as if there was a hurricane headed straight toward us. I REALLY don’t like the way the numbers are quickly ratcheting up, or the revelations about the spread. I’m aiming for ‘better safe than sorry.’
I know, it’s always something, and the sky doesn’t usually fall, but this feels weirder than normal.
Lots of driving around today, so I’ll be out of the loop on news, and updates. Keep an eye on it….
n
There is a student in middle TN being treated for possibilities of having the virus. That is about 75 miles west of where I live. Thank goodness it is in another time zone so I will get advance notice. (That is what one person told me.)
I know, it’s always something, and the sky doesn’t usually fall, but this feels weirder than normal.
My wife’s former employer in Vantucky still has the banner at the top of their page directing patients to use the web contact methods instead of the phone.
Woke to a concerned 10yo at 4:30am.
“Daddy, what was that loud boom and the shaking?”
“Probably nothing, we’ll look to see if a branch hit the roof in the morning.”
Ah, no.
https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Massive-explosion-rocks-west-Houston-Friday-15000793.php
This is about a mile or two from me, essentially straight north.
added- I drive by the business that was involved all the time.
n
Numbers and affected jumping again…
“Coronavirus ‘will infect 350,000 people in Wuhan’: Scientists make alarming prediction ahead of Chinese New Year as China locks down FOURTEEN cities, part of the Great Wall and Disneyland Shanghai – and even McDonald’s shuts up shop
The Wuhan coronavirus has infected more than 800 people and killed 26 around the world so far this month
Major cities and towns in China are cancelling public transport and closing roads to try and stop the spread
Hospitals in Wuhan, the outbreak’s centre, have been ‘overwhelmed’ this week, experts said”
Huh. Who was it who said, just yesterday, that whatever numbers are coming out of the PRC, the truth is worse? That guy is a wise man.
Huh. Who was it who said, just yesterday, that whatever numbers are coming out of the PRC, the truth is worse? That guy is a wise man.
Not me, but after dealing with my Chinese in-laws for 30 years, I concur with the statement.
“That guy is a wise man. ”
–That man is a wiseguy….
FIFY!
n
Later this morning, CDC will have a transcript of their telebriefing on china flu up on their website.
The briefing from a couple days ago has some interesting things in it.
–WA state health guy–
“Chris Spitters: So, regarding the patient’s condition, they are in good condition and again, they’re currently hospitalized out of an abundance of precaution and for short term monitoring. Not because there was severe illness. At this point, the individual has reported that he did not visit any of those implicated markets and did not know anyone who was ill. He was just traveling from that area.”
–he got it from a stranger
“the precautions for this patient are standard isolation precautions.”
–not crazy quarantine yet, but standard isolation means everyone in the waiting room gets exposed, ditto for triage nursing….
“Scott Lindquist: Just regarding the Dallas or the Texas incident, this is again, not the same situation and plus this is an area of the state that has drilled recently on transporting a person in the ambulance and what types of isolation they should require. And there’s no question that there is isolation equipment available to the hospital. Again, we are very comfortable that this patient is isolated, poses a very little risk to the staff or the general public in this current situation. And again, because of an abundance of caution, we have used pretty strict isolation requirements and hospitalization because it is the first person in the United States. We will likely learn from this and future cases and we will adjust our recommendations accordingly.”
–CDC was very comfortable that they could handle ebola. How’d that work out?
–what if they learn that “standard isolation procedures” don’t work, the hard way…
–also of note, CDC already stood up their EOC and instituted screening. It took MUCH longer for that to happen with ebola, so either they learned from their ebola response, or this is MUCH WORSE and triggered their response sooner.
“Marty Cetron: I think it’s important to point out that all the quarantine stations do enhanced education and respond to any illness report. I indicated that active screening, which is where every passenger is questioned and has a temperature check is going on at the top three airports right now – JFK, San Francisco which has direct flights and LAX which has most of the indirect flights. Additional screening will be added to Chicago and Atlanta this week and rolled out as soon as the capacity. And the rest of the airports, all of the people who originate in Wuhan and travel into the United States, all of those tickets, passengers will be rerouted into these five.”
–they are “funneling” the air traffic to the five screening airport. Re-routing, re-ticketing passengers who have EXISTING flights. I didn’t know they could do that.
“This is part of our larger plan of preparing the hospitals and the healthcare system for all hazard preparedness which means Ebola, SARS, MERS, or in this case, the novel coronavirus. Most of these hospitals have been prepared with infection control with how to sample, how to isolate. And we were well prepared as this hospital is one of the hospitals that recently did a drill as well as our ambulance system for transporting this patients.”
–I’ve linked extensively to the plans for dealing with ebola, stopping them at the point of first contact, then moving them to a concentrator hospital, then eventually to the “ebola” hospital. I personally think that’s nuts and won’t hold up in a real emergency.
–the new transcript should be available here later today.
n
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/please-help-us-supply-shortages-rock-wuhan-outbreak-overwhelms-chinese-healthcare
“Summary: Here’s a glimpse of new virus-related developments that occurred overnight.
Total number of confirmed cases now 900+, 26 dead.
China restricts travel for 40+ million people as the death toll surges.
Two deaths have been reported outside Wuhan.
Some residents displaying symptoms are being turned away from hospitals.
Hospitals in Wuhan make urgent pleas for help and supplies.
Beijing orders PLA medics to assist in Wuhan treating patients
UK and US governments tell citizens to avoid outbreak zones.
A 2nd US case has been confirmed in Chicago.
US senators receive briefing on the virus
”
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/cdc-confirms-second-us-coronavirus-case-chicago-monitoring-63-other-potential-cases
“Other cases have been rumored in Texas and at LAX, but apparently none have been confirmed. The first case emerged earlier this week in Washington State.
Meanwhile, the CDC revealed that the agency is monitoring 63 other possible cases in the US. While the agency says the risk to the American public is still ‘low’, the situation is “evolving rapidly.” They expect to see more ‘travel-related’ cases, as well as some cases passed between humans in the US. The patients are spread across 22 states, and so far 11 of the cases have tested negative.
Epoch Times is reporting that nine individuals are being tested in Northern California.”
–this is the definition of “rapidly evolving situation.”
n
Had my semi-annual appointment to have blood drawn this morning. On the way back to work, I stopped at a Walgreens and picked up 2 boxes of surgical masks. I have a bigger box on order from Amazon, but it won’t hurt to have a few on hand, and they never go bad.
I’m going to swing by Costco this evening and get more water and some more food.
They should call Komrade Sanders. He’s a millionaire commie. Spread the wealth.
The headline “New Deadly Respiratory Virus in China” is almost as common as “Rapper Shot During Argument at Nightclub”. I’m trying to sift the wheat from the chaff in the reporting to get a good idea of what is going on. My needle on my worry meter jumped up a bit with the sudden announcement of multiple cases in the US in widely separated areas.
I work with many people from all parts of Asia. A good percentage of them (or members of their families) make regular visits back home or have relatives visit them here. The Chinese guy in the neighboring cube says this is a festival time in China so large numbers of people are on the move visiting family and taking vacations. You can’t easily quarantine a billion+ people.
This biggest public health danger is rapid, accessible air travel.
“China built a lab to study SARS and Ebola in Wuhan – and US biosafety experts warned in 2017 that a virus could ‘escape’ the facility that’s become key in fighting the outbreak”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-7922379/Chinas-lab-studying-SARS-Ebola-Wuhan-outbreaks-center.html
Bioweapon ????
Hat tip to:
http://drudgereport.com/
I was thinking the same thing…
“FISA Court Admits Carter Page Warrants Were Fraudulent”
https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2020/01/24/court-admits-carter-page-warrants-were-fraudulent/
Somebody needs to go to jail. How about the two guys who signed the four FISA court warrant applications to start with, Comey and Rosenstein ?
“Pencil Neck Hijacks Senate: We Can’t Trust the Ballot Box Because of Russia!”
https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2020/01/22/pencil-neck-we-cant-trust-the-ballot-box/
Were I a USA Senator having to listen to this lying fraud Schiff, I think that I would stand up after his two and a half hour speech of lies, pick up my desk, and throw it at him. Thank goodness I am not a Senator.
Were I a USA Senator having to listen to this lying fraud Schiff, I think that I would stand up after his two and a half hour speech of lies, pick up my desk, and throw it at him. Thank goodness I am not a Senator.
The Dems didn’t get Roberts to budge on releasing the Mueller evidence so Schiff, Nadler, etc. want to create a situation where, regardless of outcome, the losing side of the next election will not accept the result quietly. The outcome of the Senate trial is a foregone conclusion at this point. Heck, they’ve known they wouldn’t have the votes going back to the moment Trump rode the escalator down to the lobby of his building and announced his Presidential run almost five years ago.
“Elon Musk says SpaceX’s Starship could fly for as little as $2 million per launch”
https://techcrunch.com/2019/11/06/elon-musk-says-spacexs-starship-could-fly-for-as-little-as-2-million-per-launch/
$2,000,000 / 100,000 lbs = 20 $/lb. Fuel is half of the cost.
Now this is an amazing goal. The Space Shuttle was supposed to be $10/lb to LEO. It ended up being around $1,000,000,000 / 60,000 lbs = 20,000 $/lb.
Wow, I have heard Mike Bloomberg ads all freaking day long on the radio in my office tuned to the FM 107.5 rock station. One ad was by Michael Douglas. Several were by Doomberg himself.
Wow, I have heard Mike Bloomberg ads all freaking day long on the radio in my office tuned to the FM 107.5 rock station. One ad was by Michael Douglas. Several were by Doomberg himself.
Mr. “American President”. “Dave” is a better flick if you want mid-90s White House Dramedy.
Doomberg isn’t a clear contrast with Trump, but Wall Street would rather have him in the White House than the other Dems *currently in the race*.
I stopped at Habitat and they did still have boxes of masks. Even better, they were marked down to $2.50 per box of 20. I bought 80 boxes, 40 for me, 40 for a friend. They still had about 100 boxes left. The cashier told me that one of their corporate clients called and had them set aside 175 boxes for them. That’s a lot of masks.
11c/mask for N95, rated for hospital use and against TB, not good against virus but stops the airborne droplets.
Depending on the news, I might go get another 40 boxes.
n
Picked up 8 cases of water and a little food at Costco. Nothing we don’t regularly consume. I had been a little lax on the water storage, so that got me back to where it needs to be. I’m going to fill up three five gallon gas cans tomorrow morning.
Sigh, the end of the week of hell. And more hell to come. A former employee who got married in 2018 and quit a couple of weeks later is getting a divorce now. Her husband has gotten a court to agree that I HAVE to give a deposition of her work habits for their divorce. Apparently he is paying her three months of support (rare here in Texas). So I have my employees producing a boatload of paperwork and I have to give a deposition on Feb 12. Why am I involved in their divorce ?
I hate supervising people !
And this is costing my business money as I went running to my lawyer who is going to squash the paperwork from before they got married. Money that I would rather pay myself. The former employee and I exchanged somewhere around 10,000 emails talking about the prospects and customers over those 10+ years that she worked for my business. I expect this to cost my business $5,000.00 at least.
This is freaking crazy ! I cannot get any work done with my dread of the coming deposition. I don’t know why, I have even testified at the FTC where I told an FTC lawyer to do bad things to himself after they dragged me in there.
Welcome to a legal system designed by lawyers, continually corrupted by lawyers, to employ lawyers at great expense to everyone. Your cost estimate may be low by a factor of 10 before it is over. It is little wonder that lawyers are considered barely above kidney stones as least liked.
Welcome to a legal system designed by lawyers, continually corrupted by lawyers, to employ lawyers at great expense to everyone. Your cost estimate may be low by a factor of 10 before it is over. It is little wonder that lawyers are considered barely above kidney stones as least liked.
Texas has jury trial divorce, but the jury only assigns blame and recommends a property settlement to the judge. IIRC, Georgia is the last state where the jury decides the property settlement as well.
Just ask Alton Brown. Ca-ching!
The link to today’s CDC briefing is up–
https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2020/t0124-Telebriefing-Coronavirus.html
It’s interesting that they don’t want to nail down any specific symptoms, don’t REALLY know the incubation time, and are only focused on travelers at this time. None of the positives had symptoms when they passed thru the airports.
63 under investigation, 11 of those negative, two positive, waiting on the rest.
n