5953

No, this is apparently an official CDC recommendation.

But in response to growing shortages of PPE, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has loosened its guidelines on proper use and reuse of masks. On Thursday, the agency advised that bandanas and scarves could be used by health care workers in place of a mask as a last resort.

5954

Who should have secured that businesses supply for them? The government?

5955

We are still sending my youngest to daycare. My wife and I still have to work and I’m not going to leave him home with my 7 and 13 year old. The daycare is doing what they can to be careful. Check temps when you get there, wash hands constantly, make you bring everything home at the end of the day instead of just Friday as usual.

5956

That is just horrific. Welp, guess they’re all infected now.

5957

We’ve gone to emergency governmental power here in Portugal, and it turns out a lot of things still need to be open as long as people need to work. You wouldn’t think of auto or electronic retail stores, but equipment and computers will break, so they need to be somewhat open. Houses might have water or power problems too.

My wife happened into some Facebook posts today from alleged American nurses asking for homemade masks… I still hope it’s a just sick joke, because, Jesus fuck.

5958

This. Cars will need to be repaired. As we get into summer, HVAC techs will be needed. General contractors and such as well. Plumbers. etc. etc.

5959

All those things are still open in CA. My pool company decided they’re essential, which is a bit ridiculous, but, the pool guy generally doesn’t come into contact with people.

5960

You haven’t been watching the right movies.

Heyo! I’ll be here all week.

5961

It’s a problem with privatized healthcare. Any for-profit business loathes excesses, whether of inventory, capacity or human resources. They’re bad for the balance sheet. ICU beds and OR’s are expensive, and underutilized assets are anathema. No business keeps a year’s inventory of any supplies. Not in a just-in-time world.

Our whole healthcare system is designed to have minimal surge capacity. “You don’t build the church for Easter Sunday,” as they say. Well, it’s gonna be Easter all fucking year, and we’re in no way ready for it.

You’d think that government would be prepared to step in, of course. But the GOP has spent 50 years trying to convince voters that government is the problem, not the solution. Their political philosophy cannot withstand government being the primary source of help for regular people. People might get used to that.

5962

Which is fine. As long as we understand the trajectory we’re on, which is “Italy, more or less”. Half-measures will get us more of that.

It’ll be an exciting few months, anyway.

5963

Just wait for the double whammy that’s incoming due to healthcare being tied to employment.

Millions of newly unemployed people without healthcare, and lots of them are about to get Coronavirus. Not to mention all the normal stuff that they need healthcare for.

5964

Speaking as a Californian, fuck yeah it is.

Dunno how much it will help but it sure isn’t like anything I’ve ever seen in my 27 years living in this state.

5965

Yeah. The one bright side of a million deaths and maybe 10 million new bankruptcies is that our current system will not survive it. This is the Chicxulub Meteor for American Healthcare.

5966

We can put all the bankrupt to work digging mass graves. Win/win.

5967

The tidal wave is beginning to hit NY

5968

Yes, by open I mean keeping isolation, even if it means waiting in a line in the street, which was already happening as recommended as most people were scared and most of what was forceably closed was already closing due to lack of customers. I think that worked well here, even if imperfectly, scaring and preparing everyone with enough time to process and absorb. But we’ll only know next week, I guess.
How the US and the UK will quickly adapt… yeah, I can’t think of it without tearing up and breaking down. Hope you all will be ok.

5969

Fearing a critical shortage of supplies, including the ventilators needed to help the most seriously ill patients breathe, state officials and hospital leaders held a conference call on Wednesday night to discuss the plans, according to several people involved in the talks. The triage document, still under consideration, will assess factors such as age, health and likelihood of survival in determining who will get access to full care and who will merely be provided comfort care, with the expectation that they will die.

The effort is statewide so individual doctors and hospitals will not be left to make such decisions, said Cassie Sauer, chief executive of the Washington State Hospital Association, one of the groups convening the call.

5970

We have a lot of friends in healthcare, including one that’s clinical director at a local hospital and another who was a cardiac nurse at Beth Israel, now transferred to the ICU. All of them tell us the same thing my wife is seeing first hand at her facility— We don’t have what we need to fight this crisis. Not even close. It’s not going to be pretty.

5971

Interesting observations from my brothers who live in Brooklyn. One of them lives out near Coney Island, surrounded by a lot of blue color Trump supporters. He said that no one was taking the shut down seriously. (For clarity, he’s not a Trump supporter and was frustrated that no one was taking it seriously.). The other lives in Brooklyn heights which is wealthy and liberal. He said it’s like a ghost town. The streets are deserted.

One burrow encapsulating attitudes across the country based on politics.

5972

Do kids that age FaceTime? Or group video chat?