Coronavirus... your thoughts?

[Cody]

Up goes Covid-19, down go oil prices, shares plummet - and it's raining!

[sscadmin]

Yeah USA stock market is taking a pretty good hit, my 401k has dropped a lot in value over this past 2wks. I haven't sold anything because I believe in the funds/stocks I am in will eventually recover and be around for many more years to come. You don't technically loose money until you sell.... but if the govt wants to send me free money I will take it I pay enough in taxes I think I deserve a little give back
In other news....

NEWS: E3 2020 CANCELLED DUE TO GROWING CONCERNS OVER COVID-19 VIRUS
After careful consultation with our member companies regarding the health and safety of everyone in our industry – our fans, our employees, our exhibitors, and our longtime E3 partners – we have made the difficult decision to cancel E3 2020, scheduled for June 9-11 in Los Angeles.
Following increased and overwhelming concerns about the COVID-19 virus, we felt this was the best way to proceed during such an unprecedented global situation. We are very disappointed that we are unable to hold this event for our fans and supporters. But we know it’s the right decision based on the information we have today.
Our team will be reaching out directly to exhibitors and attendees with information about providing full refunds.
We are also exploring options with our members to coordinate an online experience to showcase industry announcements and news in June 2020. Updates will be shared on E3Expo.com.
We thank everyone who shared their views on reimagining E3 this year. We look forward to bringing you E3 2021 as a reimagined event that brings fans, media, and the industry together in a showcase that celebrates the global video game industry.
For all the station members try to stay away from the crazies out there... you see these videos were people are rushing stores over toilet paper and some food items.... it just shows that some humans really shouldn't be higher on the evolution scale I love it, there is a virus that is fairly contagious and it is spread by close contact.... so lets rush a store where so many people are in close proximity to each other

[Cody]

It's good news week Someone's found a way to give
The rotting dead a will to live
Go on and never die

Hedgehoppers Anonymous - who else!

[sscadmin]

Least the USA is getting a little smarter after seeing whats been happening in Europe, with president Trump announcing a national emergency and shutting down all incoming flights from Europe and all Americans coming back to the usa after this week will have to be put into quarantine for 2wks. Granted I think we are in more danger than most think, they are not really testing people because they don't have enough.... so they are only testing people that have the highest possibility of being sick.
The rates in Italy, Spain, France and Germany are rising quickly.... what's happening over there, do you think the govt's are responding and doing what they need too.... Is it the populous not using common sense? Is resources and food being brought in frequent enough all over so there is no real shortage?
Stay safe my fellow stationmates, SSC is disease and virus free... all is welcomed. Keep heads up and for those that can't the bar is fully stocked

[Cody]

Looks like we may be heading for lockdown in parts of the UK. As for 'common sense', my usual major store (Waitrose) was well-stocked yesterday, apart from toilet paper and paracetamol - none to be had! WTF? I won't bother mentioning hand sanitisers! Not that I need them - isopropyl alcohol is something I've always got in the house. Very useful stuff!

[D.C.Elington]

Posted by: @sscadmin
The rates in Italy, Spain, France and Germany are rising quickly.... what's happening over there, do you think the govt's are responding

Reporting from France (March 14th): we're going into full lockdown, all non-essential shops closing and everyone required to stay home and limit contacts as much as possible.
However the rates have been extremely stable actually: the problem is that the phenomenon is a chain reaction (one infected person contaminating two others in average) resulting in an exponential growth with a doubling of the cases every 3 days. France was 8 days behind Italy, and the rest of the western world is on the same track:
Covid-19 lag tracker
Also beware that the apparently small figures are deceiving:
1- many people only suffer from mild forms and are not counted, however they are still contagious.
2- at a given time the reported cases reflect the contaminations about 7 days back in time because of the silent incubation period.
With no treatment nor vaccine it appears that the only solution to avoid a catastrophic overload of the healthcare system and a shocking number of casualties is confinement, so for those of you not under lockdown yet you might want to prepare for it.
Finally about closing the borders: in France two weeks ago the number of reported cases was... "70". Once more than a few cases are detected it appears that the [x2 / 3 days] goes like clockwork everywhere. You have 2500+ cases in the US as of today already...
Stay safe

[sscadmin]

Posted by: @d-c-elington
With no treatment nor vaccine it appears that the only solution to avoid a catastrophic overload of the healthcare system and a shocking number of casualties is confinement, so for those of you not under lockdown yet you might want to prepare for it.

That is the worrying part of that situation is overloading the medical system, I heard in some countries that the medical staff was doing war time trauma style measures in only helping the people they knew had a chance at survival.... yeah I know the military side of me says that is the right thing to do. But I know a lot of non-military people would not like to hear stuff like that for their loved ones.
Then I hear that China is threatening to withhold specific medications people need.... grrr. This event WILL open up peoples minds and I surely do hope that the USA finally learns its lesson and starts manufacturing things in the USA again, if prices are a bit higher so be it. 
I know here in NH they are closing down most of the schools for at least two weeks, they haven't closed our school here yet but conversation that it might be because they are discussing online classes/learning for the kids.
Oh I am well aware that 2500+ people are infected in the USA can balloon into a lot more, who knows if who these people came into contact with? Voluntary confinement is the proper thing to do and limit human contact all together if we can and if we can do that the infection rate should start to drop within 2-3wks. Now the only thing we have to worry about is idiots buying too much and a-holes starting things in a store when everyone is in the same situation, so we might as all get along Posted by: @cody
my usual major store (Waitrose) was well-stocked yesterday, apart from toilet paper and paracetamol - none to be had! WTF?

I did my grocery shopping last night and yup Cody no more toilet paper or water.... water I couldn't figure out... we still have power and there is not immediate threat of a power outage so water and sewer should still be running for a while but besides that there was generally plenty of food and veggies in the store.... one thing that I thought was funny is that a shelf would be wiped out but the vegan stuff was still there, even when the world is ending we still have our limits

[D.C.Elington]

Posted by: @sscadmin
overloading the medical system

Official stats here: 10% of the cases require a stay in ICU, hence the heavy load.

[Gaius Konstantine]

Starting to spread on my Island here in the eastern Med now, Schools are closed, restaurants shut and the highway is almost deserted. The wife did some heavy shopping and luckilly the supermarkets are well stocked... but for how long? Just about everything here is imported.
And let us not kid ourselves, apart from the obvious danger to public health, the economic consequences are going to be quite severe.

[Cody]

Looks like they're going to ask people in at-risk groups to stay home for 12 weeks. That is going to make life very difficult for some of us. I have much-needed eye surgery scheduled for early April, which will almost certainly have to be cancelled. Mierda!

[sscadmin]

@Cody staying in your home isn't mandatory is it? They are just recommending you to stay home if your able too. They know people have to work, buy food and go to appointments. Do you have to go to the hospital to do your eye appointment? Is it something a eye doctor can do right in their practice? Because if this virus sticks around a which the hospitals will probably be rescheduling a lot of appointments for everyone. Which in some ways is unfair, the hospital should try to reserve some space/doctors for processing non covid-19 patients... but personally I wouldn't even want to go to the hospital if I don't have the virus because you might leave with it
@gaius-konstantine thats a big question.... govts asking resturants and bars to close down early or all together, hotels are closing/laying-off staff because no one is traveling. No one is buying cars, going on vacation, shit just not making any purchases at all just to save money because they don't know if they will have a job in 1-2mos.... I have literally watched my 401k loose 50% of its value in 3wks I am now set back to the early 2000s in value. I am sure the market will recover in strength but how long will that take? I did see an article where Amazon might hire another 100000 people to help process all of the online orders because everyone is at home.
I went into work today and there was 5 people on my floor the rest of them were working from home, which I might do that a few days every week until this calms down. But least I have the type of job where I can do that, most people do not. Businesses closing or restricting travel or curfews might make people more desperate than the virus will and that might mean trouble... you cannot just keep millions of people in there homes its not going to go over so well.... especially not for 1-3mos
Here in NH we have about 17 people with about 300 on watch, so I guess we are doing well. Better than most states. Posted by: @d-c-elington
10% of the cases require a stay in ICU, hence the heavy load.

That's crazy, if infection rates explode in quantity there is going to be a lot of people that will not be able to be treated anyone hear anything about recovery rates, Is most people recovering?

[Cody]

Posted by: @sscadmin
staying in your home isn't mandatory is it?

No... at least, not yet! Hard to enforce anyway. You know, the darker tentacles of government are probably loving this. A chance to wargame a "control the masses" scenario in a live-fire environment. Am I cynical? You bet!

[sscadmin]

Posted by: @cody
A chance to wargame a "control the masses" scenario in a live-fire environment. Am I cynical? You bet!

Hahah trust me I try not to go down the conspiracy route with this topic.... but if there is one thing that prevents US Govt from trying that crap is the there is over 375000000 privately owned weapons in the USA

[D.C.Elington]

Posted by: @sscadmin
there is going to be a lot of people that will not be able to be treated anyone hear anything about recovery rates, Is most people recovering?

That's the big issue. When all can be properly treated the death rate appears to be very low, hence the initial confidence of some physicians when they had only a few cases to treat. However as soon as there are more patients than ICU beds things get ugly very fast and the rate can reach ~ 5% as reported by China, Italy, and probably everywhere in a matter of days. In the North East of France the situation is alarming and we are already hearing about the medical staff having to "choose" whom can be treated with the best chance of survival. To the point that the army is now installing a field hospital in the area and will transport some patients to other regions under less pressure (source: our president himself, live on TV yesterday).
At noon today (03/17) France will be under full lockdown with people having to stay at home by law except for work (when impossible from home) and essential needs. IMHO this will soon happen to all of you still a few days ahead, so you might want to reasonably prepare before you have to do so among a panicking crowd.
Stay safe

[Cody]

Posted by: @d-c-elington
That's the big issue

Yep! Army field hospitals are on the agenda here in England too. Visions of MASH come to mind.
This morning, my usual supermarket was not well-stocked - lots of empty shelves! Alarming!

[D.C.Elington]

Posted by: @gaius-konstantine
the economic consequences are going to be quite severe.

SSC is about gaming so for a moment let's look at the big picture as if we were in a 4X sim: IMHO if a "great" civilization in-effect cannot afford to protect its population from perfectly manageable disasters (just #StayTheF..kHome!) then it is not so "great" after all!

[D.C.Elington]

Posted by: @cody
lots of empty shelves! Alarming!

There has been a wave of panic-buying here also but no real shortages. Italy leads the way on that front too and it seems that people get disciplined and things get back to normal rapidly.

[sscadmin]

This is a good site to track things: [url]https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6[/url]
The total value has gone up almost 4000 just this morning that is alarming, germany looks to be rising quickly. I haven't been to the store since Friday but I will go again this Friday and I hope the grocery will have some food there  
Schools are closed to at least the 1st week of April, and I will work from home a few days a week until then as well. I think New York is going to grow in numbers soon.... can't imagine any sick people on a subway could infect hundreds. They will be starting clinical tests of a vaccine in like 1-2wks here in the usa, so I hope for everyone we can get something by the end of the year.

[Gaius Konstantine]

Posted by: @d-c-elington
SSC is about gaming so for a moment let's look at the big picture as if we were in a 4X sim: IMHO if a "great" civilization in-effect cannot afford to protect its population from perfectly manageable disasters (just #StayTheF..kHome!) then it is not so "great" after all!

I like that idea, we're in a 4X. (actually, I appear as a character in one already, due to my contributions in getting it off the ground). Alas, where I'm at these days, is not a "great" civilization, just a sleepy little island that's great for raising kids and just chilling as you get on in years. I'm also not able to stay home due to my work... but it isn't that bad as everywhere I go I see a 90% reduction in the number of people out.
At least we have the gaming industry to distract us during these times, very helpful for those that must stay home.

[Cody]

At least something positive has come out of it...

This year's Eurovision Song Contest will no longer take place due to the coronavirus outbreak.