COVID-19

[dudacek]

2 hours ago, E4 ... Ke2 said:

My sister (microbiologist) says that it is.  I am naturally curious, so if you have questions you would like answered, I will prepare them.

Nothing specific but any updates with your experience and the science behind it that you are comfortable sharing would be welcomed.

I was just reading a piece calling for more widespread testing in order to find suitable antibody sources, and also to identify those who should be immune in order get them in positions where they are needed most, or at least leading the wedge back into functioning society.

And good luck with your recovery. I wouldn’t call what you experienced minor at all. I’m glad you’ve pulled through.

Edited March 24, 2020 by dudacek

[WildCard]

Question for the older posters I was debating with my gf: Is this the wildest thing you've ever lived through? Are times now, with leaps in technology, politics, and pandemics, crazier now then they were when you were younger?

[BagBoy]

4 minutes ago, WildCard said:

I'm really just worries about depleting my savings on investments that take years to cash and then not having money for a house down payment or other life things in a year or two.

A couple things for you...

If you stick to liquid investments like stocks, ETF's, bond funds, etc., you can liquidate at any time with only nominal costs (like the $9.99 sales fee for example).  If you are investing in a CD with a 2-year maturity, and you suddenly want to bail 3 months in, then there are additional costs, and this represents a less liquid asset.  As an extreme, investing in a small business is not a liquid investment at all.

You don't want to invest in anything liquid if you think it will take an extended period to start appreciating.  Certain airlines may indeed be a good investment, but you don't want to invest in them until they actually are viable on a real-time basis.  I'm not saying that time is not now, because I don't know.  The market is a bit volatile now as we all know.  But if/when you do make the plunge, you should be doing it with the expectation that your investment is a good bet not only in the long run, but also right at the time you invest.

In general terms, someone in your age category should seriously consider being in the market for the vast majority of your working life.  Traditionally, this has produced the most wealth for individuals going back multiple generations.  However stay true to your risk tolerance.  If being in stocks makes you too nervous, find something more conservative that doesn't make you worry as much.  

[SwampD]

6 minutes ago, WildCard said:

Question for the older posters I was debating with my gf: Is this the wildest thing you've ever lived through? Are times now, with leaps in technology, politics, and pandemics, crazier now then they were when you were younger?

9-11 was crazier. Gulf war was out there as well. This ain’t normal, that’s for sure. We’ll get through it. There will be others.

[dudacek]

911 was something on TV for me.

Wildfires of the past few years were close enough to be real, but it was smoke, not fire, here.

This will become a firsthand hardship when the money dries up or when folks I know (or me) start battling for their lives.

But it already qualifies as the wildest.

Edited March 24, 2020 by dudacek

[spndnchz]

7 hours ago, Eleven said:

That's what happened to me over the weekend.  I pre-ordered one from Office Max on Delaware Ave and had it in my hands an hour later.  Barely needed to interact with anyone.

Now someone hit a transformer pole outside. Powers out and of course no WiFi again. Smh

[BagBoy]

6 minutes ago, WildCard said:

Question for the older posters I was debating with my gf: Is this the wildest thing you've ever lived through? Are times now, with leaps in technology, politics, and pandemics, crazier now then they were when you were younger?

This pandemic is pretty unprecedented in terms of post-1917.  This current stock market is something that doesn't happen often, but it definitely happens, and will happen again and again in the future.  Technology has always advanced in what seems to the current generation to be leaps and bounds.  It does seem to be happening exponentially faster now, and I worry that that will surely bring some completely unforeseen negative consequences.  The Cold War was fun.  Being taught in school that life on this planet could completely be obliterated at any minute (unless you stop, drop and roll) was a real joy.  I must say though that the state of politics these days is at what feels like an all time low.  Dems and GOP are hellbent on becoming the next Shi'a - Sunni scenario.  It's toxic, moronic and embarrassing.  The death of true journalism is extremely disconcerting to me, also.  Nothing good can come of that.

[Wyldnwoody44]

My 9 months in Iraq in 2001-2002 will always be the craziest and most serious time I'll ever experience. 

I am unsure what this will be, I don't think the medical ramifications will be as bad as expected but the financial ones will turn out to be grave. 

[Neo]

6 hours ago, WildCard said:

Question for the older posters I was debating with my gf: Is this the wildest thing you've ever lived through? Are times now, with leaps in technology, politics, and pandemics, crazier now then they were when you were younger?

Great question ....

Change has been here my entire life.  New threats and opportunities present themselves regularly, one by one.  I’ve felt 1 & 2, below, for some time.  They put 3 into context.

1).  Acceleration:  Change is constant, but its accelerated pace for the past fifteen or so years takes my breath away.  Kitty Hawk to the moon landing took 63 years,  or barely a heartbeat in human history.  Now, things change even more rapidly.  We find and lose whole industries, not just companies, in a matter of years.  Think Blockbuster.   I started feeling this, articulating this, perhaps fifteen years ago.  I don’t know how anyone plans for retirement, anymore.   What will it look like?  I hire and mentor young people.  Well, I did until we stopped hiring them, but that’s another story.  I used to tell them what I considered to be valuable advice.  “Learn accounting.  Regardless of where your career goes, it will always be valuable.  It’s the language of business.”. Now, I tell them “Don’t become wed to today.  Today will be yesterday very soon, and no one cares about how we did things yesterday.”  This is unnerving.

2).  Disconnect:  Short version.  We are orders of magnitude less connected today then we were when I was a boy, all the technological and generational “connectedness” talk notwithstanding.  Have dinner with two people who learned “stuff” when they were kids.  Then, have dinner with two people who learned where to “find stuff” when they were kids.  I don’t know who’s better prepared.  I know we’re differently prepared.  This disconnect, this loss of common denominators, is unrecognized by victims.  I believe it to be insidious; time will tell.  I could go on and on, here.  Tidbit ...  my frequent visits here are a symptom, not a contradiction.   Second tidbit ...  this isn’t a generational dig, either.  My kids are millennials.  This is a truism that doesn’t praise, criticize, uplift, offend, accuse or absolve.  This is alienating.

3). Events:   In the context of 1 & 2, we experience events differently.  The new and unforeseen arrives more often in a less connected world.  Life can be overwhelming.  I’m as skeptical of “progress” as I am of “complacency”.  There’s “new” and there’s “better”.  Sometimes they’re the same, sometime’s they’re not.

There, all that said, I’ll answer your question.   You used words like crazy and wild.   In answer to your question, it’s “this”.   Seven billion people affected the same way, regardless of status or locale, at the exact same time, by a mystery threat.  Insulated, safe, comfortable lives suspended.  Financial atomic bombs.  Guesses as to how and when it ends.   I’ve not lived through anything like this.  Mother nature reminds us all the time that we are fragile and vulnerable.  She sends hurricanes, floods, and earthquakes.  God gives us faulty hearts, tired kidneys, over-burdened or weak arteries.  Regularly, the two send us messages, one on one or in small groups.   Occasionally, She and He get together and call us together to a grand assembly.  Still, my confidence is unshaken.  We will tell our kids about it ....  well, I’ll tell my GREAT grandkids, God willing.  My kids and grandkids already know.

I am 58.

Edited March 24, 2020 by Neo

[#freejame]

8 hours ago, WildCard said:

I have a good amount of student loans left. Is it a good idea to throw a chunk of money at it right now to avoid the interest as it's temporarily waived?

If you aren’t currently facing interest make the minimum payment until more clarity on this situation comes to light. It’s better to have money in your pocket during times like this. Just make sure you are able to take advantage of zero interest before it’s all said and done and make a lump payment then. 

Edited March 24, 2020 by #freejame

[Doohicksie]

A friend of mine who works for the transit system is experiencing symptoms and has been tested, awaiting results.

Someone at my workplace (a large company with thousands of employees) tested positive.  They don't work in the same area of the building as I do and I'm in my second week of telecommuting.

[nfreeman]

Another political post was moved to the politics club.

In this regard, starting a post with "not being political" doesn't magically give you a free pass to take partisan shots and make a political post.

Keep it in the politics club.

[Stoner]

10 hours ago, Brawndo said:

TBH, forgiving Some Student Loan Debt should be included in the Stimulus Package moving through Congress right now.

Why? I'd like to see the help be very targeted, but that might be practically impossible and doom any bill when they start debating how to do it. But there are families who are going to get $3,000 who don't really need it, businesses that are getting bailed out who could pull themselves up by their bootstraps, etc.

9 hours ago, WildCard said:

Question for the older posters I was debating with my gf: Is this the wildest thing you've ever lived through? Are times now, with leaps in technology, politics, and pandemics, crazier now then they were when you were younger?

This is it for me. This is an existential threat. We only feared terrorists could destroy our country. BagBoy's post about the Cold War is a good one. I guess I missed the worst of that. I never had nuke drills in school.

9 hours ago, BagBoy said:

This pandemic is pretty unprecedented in terms of post-1917.  This current stock market is something that doesn't happen often, but it definitely happens, and will happen again and again in the future.  Technology has always advanced in what seems to the current generation to be leaps and bounds.  It does seem to be happening exponentially faster now, and I worry that that will surely bring some completely unforeseen negative consequences.  The Cold War was fun.  Being taught in school that life on this planet could completely be obliterated at any minute (unless you stop, drop and roll) was a real joy.  I must say though that the state of politics these days is at what feels like an all time low.  Dems and GOP are hellbent on becoming the next Shi'a - Sunni scenario.  It's toxic, moronic and embarrassing.  The death of true journalism is extremely disconcerting to me, also.  Nothing good can come of that.

Journalism isn't only dying on a macro level, but small town journalism is also withering away. I'll be damned if I can get any news on whether testing is being conducted in my county, and we have a daily paper.

[sabills]

10 hours ago, WildCard said:

Question for the older posters I was debating with my gf: Is this the wildest thing you've ever lived through? Are times now, with leaps in technology, politics, and pandemics, crazier now then they were when you were younger?

I talked to my 96 year old gramma yesterday. She compared it to being a teenager in WWII, with the food/gas rations and having to be inside at night because of air-raid warnings.

She then talked about how she couldn't have any fun back then because all the men were overseas, haha

Edited March 24, 2020 by sabills

[Stoner]

Just read this phrase... "An Army of the Immune." How awesome would that be?

[Wyldnwoody44]

So now the story is we're going to try to restart the economy, what the heck are we doing as a country....we have failed on every level of this, we want our cake and want to eat it too. 

Are we so inept that we can't handle a shutdown of more than a week, don't declare a national emergency and shut down the world due to a virus and then turn it off before the virus actually makes it's course. 

Either this thing is a glorified flu and that's what's coming to light, or this thing is as bad as they say and we are being stupid and greedy. 

[nfreeman]

Moved a few more to the politics club.

[WildCard]

11 minutes ago, nfreeman said:

Moved a few more to the politics club.

Moved a lot more to the politics club. 

[darksabre]

5 minutes ago, WildCard said:

Moved a lot more to the politics club. 

Haphazardly too. Woody's post stays but the others don't? 

[MakeSabresGrr8Again]

14 hours ago, E4 ... Ke2 said:

Sure.  In fact, I should have posted this earlier.  Thank you, PA!

Fever, 1-3 degrees C above normal: 1.5 weeks.  Its persistence marks it as unusual. 

Cough: 3 weeks.  The tell here was that my throat felt like it was burning and was being punctured like needles.

Shortness of breath, trouble inhaling, non-cardiac chest pains: started after 1 week, got worse, still not back to normal after 3 months

Extreme somnolence verging on narcolepsy: 5 weeks.  We think that I have diminished lung capacity because of lung damage, probably exacerbated by hypertension.  Still remnants after 3 months.

Bouts of confusion: 2 months.  Just recently pulled out of this.

More aches and pains than usual for male over 50.  Includes some problems with balance.

Other symptoms were like terrible allergies.

And all this is considered a "mild" case?.....If you don't mind me asking, did you have any underlying respiratory conditions prior to having it?

[GoPre]

What are your thoughts of many easing back to a normal life routine after the 15 day shutdown ends next week?  Mainly going back to the norm to prevent the economy from collapsing.  Just curious.  

[darksabre]

Just now, GoPre said:

What are your thoughts of many easing back to a normal life routine after the 15 day shutdown ends next week?  Mainly going back to the norm to prevent the economy from collapsing.  Just curious.  

I don't think the shutdown is ending next week, at least not in NYS.

[shrader]

3 minutes ago, darksabre said:

I don't think the shutdown is ending next week, at least not in NYS.

There's no chance anything is ending for you guys.  NC just yesterday extended their school shutdown until May 15th.  NY is going to take more steps than we will down here with everything up there in the city.

[WildCard]

5 minutes ago, darksabre said:

I don't think the shutdown is ending next week, at least not in NYS.

I would bet at the earliest May 1st

[sabills]

Just now, WildCard said:

I would bet at the earliest May 1st

Honestly, I'm mentally prepping for July.