Nesrie
5005
Well that’s heartbreaking. I’m sorry.
We might be 11 days behind Italy (and I think that number is pretty different for different parts of the country), but we’re closer to 6 weeks from peak shit hitting the fan.
Let’s hope the start of social distancing blunts that. I’m terrified to think of peak coronavirus.
Mr.GRIM
5007
10 days ago Italy locked down the Lombardi region. If the US is 11 days behind Italy, I would hope to see some lockdown measures taken tomorrow, or else there is little hope of doing anything but rapidly outpacing even Italy, wich is currently on its knees. Next week is going to be pretty bad.
To this day the Northern region in Italy is the most effected, and the southern regions remain relatively untouched. This has allowed them to shift people and supplies northward. This is a luxury that won’t be afforded if you can’t isolate the spread even a little.
Oghier
5008
Perhaps that isn’t as scary as it first appears. As I understand it, you’re more likely to get infected if the initial viral load is a large one. I imagine there is a big difference between personal contact with someone shedding virus and encountering one little bit on a pizza box.
They do note that the data noise on cardboard was a lot higher than any other surface.
Depends on how greasy the pizza box is.
Dejin
5011
Other than Seattle and New York, which have been hit really hard and really early, many parts of the US have moved a bit faster on lockdown than Italy did. So hopefully at least those parts of the country may be in better shape than Italy.
A University of Washington pathology professor has died of the virus.
COVID-19 claims UW pathologist Stephen Schwartz
A longtime member of the University of Washington’s Department of Pathology has died after being hospitalized with COVID-19 infection.
The news was shared with faculty members in an e-mail from the interim chair of the department, Charles E. Alpers, on Wednesday.
“It is with extreme regret that I share with you the news that a member of our faculty, Professor Stephen Schwartz, died yesterday after being hospitalized with COVID-19 infection,” the message said.
Anecdotal report from a friend at St. Josephs hospital here in Denver - they have 20+ patients and are already running out of supplies
Mr.GRIM
5014
from a 10 day old article:
" The lockdown of the northern Lombardy region and 11 neighboring provinces will restrict movement “in and out of the territory, and also within,” the affected area. People will need to seek special permissions to travel for work or medical reasons. The Times reports that under the restrictions, funerals and cultural events are banned, and people are required to keep a distance of at least one meter (about 3 feet) between each other at public places like supermarkets and churches. Anyone with a fever is being encouraged to stay home, and anyone who has tested positive for the coronavirus is required to do so.
Anyone violating the lockdown could be subject to a fine or jail time, and police and soldiers will be enforcing the terms, the Times reports. Conte did not provide an end date for the measures when he spoke on Sunday, but an earlier report said a draft of the government decree indicated it would last until April 3rd."
Meanwhile a livecam from New York shows streets full of people.
Your not doing even close to enough. Not even even remotely close.
KevinC
5015
That may as well be America’s subtitle these days.
Personally, I’m not a big fan of them. You are correct about the tax consequences so from a corporate finance/tax planning they make a lot of sense. But from a purely economic viewpoint they make very little sense. If a corporation make more profit than they can reasonable reinvest in the business, pay it back me and other shareholders in the form of dividends.
There are certainly exception, Warren Buffett is both a better investor than I’ll ever be, and has access to better deal than I could get, so in Warren I trust, and all other CEO I’ll take cash please.
In reality most corporate buybacks are thinly disguised way of increasing the CEO’s paycheck. Buying back stock rise the stock price (which is a typical target for a CEO bonus) and raises the EPS which is also a CEO bonus goal. It is especially bad for the economic when company borrow money, and use it to buy back shares. It is gaming the tax system that results in no economic benefit for the economy.
MikeJ
5017
Why is it set up like this? Why choose a metric so easily manipulated?
I’m sure I can’t think of any reason.
Dejin
5019
I don’t know what New York thinks they are doing. They’ve passed up Washington in infections and the government there doesn’t seem to be doing all that much to keep it under control.
In at least my part of the San Francisco Bay Area, life does seem to have come to a stop and people do seem to be taking the “shelter-in-place” order seriously. There’s also a fair number of local and state governments with even fewer cases than the Bay Area has that are trying to lock things down now.
Minnesota shuttered schools and moved restaurants to takeout only as of yesterday, when we had all of 60 confirmed cases. At least based on what I’m seeing, there’s a lot of social distancing taking place. Everyone I know is WFH full-time, or with the lowest human density possible for remote-incapable jobs.
I’m feeling mostly okay with it. I mean, other than that I’m needing to proactively manage my mood and anxiety my own self not to mention the kids.
Remember that the US is a web of interconnected but largely isolated cities/metros more comparable to the EU as a whole rather than a single EU country like Italy or whatever. Responsiveness/severity is going to vary heavily by region.
Your regular reminder that when people say “the US is X days behind Italy” they’re purely talking about the absolute numbers of cases. E.g. in X days the US will have the same number of total cases as Italy, not cases per capita.
This does not in any way factor in the fact that the US is a much more populous country (330 million vs. Italy’s 60 million), with a much larger health care system in absolute terms (if not necessarily better in per capita terms.)
This means a couple things. First, on a per capita basis the vastly populous USA as a whole is actually further behind Italy than that “X days” absolute number of cases suggests. Second, and more importantly, at some point the USA’s number of cases are going to vastly exceed Italy’s peak, because our population is vastly bigger. In particular, if Italy’s numbers start to level off, don’t grow complacent and say, “Oh, our numbers will level off on day Y just like Italy’s.” Because the US consists of a vast number of regions, all taking separate and uncoordinated action to contain the virus (or not), it’s not gonna work that way. It will take longer for the disease to spread in the US; it will also take longer for the numbers to go down.
Seattle/King County just reported 10 more deaths, 44 new cases.
The non-cynical answer is because it is easy to measure. Where as things like customer satisfaction, product quality, even marketshare are more difficult
The cynical answer is what @inactive_user implies the good old boys club in the board room, sees manipulation as a feature not a bug.
28 Days Later also started with monkeys, if I remember correctly.
