COVID-19/Coronavirus thread

[StrangeSox]

 

[Texsox]

1 minute ago, Soxbadger said:

Back in my day we spent thousands of dollars a semester to skip class because we stayed out too late drinking and prioritized Madden franchises.

That would have been my biggest gripe, that Id have missed out on a year of fun because there would be no football games, no Halloween parties, etc. 

Yep. 

Which is why I'd save the money and take on line at the local community college. I always discuss that strategy with my students, even during normal times. Come home for the summer to this . . .

Parents "Are you getting a job?"

Student "Ah, no, I'm taking classes at (community college) to save money"

Or take 12 hours at your major university and knock off six more concurrently at your local community college. I guess if you can learn without lectures, 

[Texsox]

2 minutes ago, StrangeSox said:

 

He went from all lives matter to killing teachers quickly. 

[bmags]

37 minutes ago, Texsox said:

I hope my post didn't come off as mockery. I basically teach a class about getting into college, staying in college, paying for college, etc, It is a horrible situation. M point is don't put your life on hold for six months, do something to move it forward. If you are a history major, knocking off that algebra class on line isn't a bad idea. Engineering major? Get that history class checked off. 

I understand, but I think there are reasonably productive things that students can do with a semester than spend the full 6-8k. 

Depending on what level they are in college, I know it would have been extremely difficult for me to do online any semester of junior or senior year. Many of my cores had a "work"-like component to it. Taking two of those in a semester would be quite difficult. It wouldn't even make sense to load up on 1-2 more electives as I'd still want to maintain full-time student status.

I think a student deciding to skip a semester, stay home and save, and maybe try to work on a personal project, find a job, help out with younger siblings or parents in need will make a lot of sense. 

Some may have aid tied to continuous enrollment, and that is not an option.

And also - higher ed had a reckoning coming, but it needs to be supported financially.

[bmags]

 

this came across my feed but have not seen any verification from trib/local papers.

[southsider2k5]

35 minutes ago, StrangeSox said:

 

I believe this calls for a solid "OK, Boomer"

[bmags]

well looks like it was a press conference, confirmed:

https://twitter.com/AmandaVinicky/status/1285230713747525632?s=20

[southsider2k5]

1 minute ago, bmags said:

 

this came across my feed but have not seen any verification from trib/local papers.

Pretty sure he is associated with WBBM, as I think Delta One is behind their station.

[StrangeSox]

Confirmed here

Not sure how bars survive this indefinitely without federal support (many other industries and public services as well)

[bmags]

17 minutes ago, southsider2k5 said:

Pretty sure he is associated with WBBM, as I think Delta One is behind their station.

Thanks. Curse of the first mover, dude needs a better bio.

[bmags]

8 minutes ago, StrangeSox said:

Confirmed here

Not sure how bars survive this indefinitely without federal support (many other industries and public services as well)

#bancars for one. Encourage people to stay in their neighborhood, increase outdoor space. 

But yeah, there needs to be a federal guarantee to entertainment since they are essentially forced via the state to not operate, for the federal good, but forced nonetheless.

[southsider2k5]

1 minute ago, bmags said:

#bancars for one. Encourage people to stay in their neighborhood, increase outdoor space. 

But yeah, there needs to be a federal guarantee to entertainment since they are essentially forced via the state to not operate, for the federal good, but forced nonetheless.

Of all things, we have done a lot more walking around the hometown with this.  Especially on the weekends when the trails fill up, just walking the neighborhood has been a nice release.

[bmags]

This is absolutely fascinating:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/19/health/coronavirus-premature-birth.html?surface=home-discovery-vi-prg&fellback=false&req_id=544262400&algo=identity&imp_id=398121288&action=click&module=Science Technology&pgtype=Homepage

[Bananarchy]

1 hour ago, caulfield12 said:

Between Oxford/AstroZeneca, Sanofi (French company), Johnson & Johnson, Gilead, Moderna, the 3 major Chinese efforts, the Gates Foundation...Abbott, Pfizer, Glaxo, etc., who's the best positioned right now?

Not for investment purposes, because that's completely an overinflated/over-speculated bubble right now, but more from who's likeliest to succeed and for it to "stick"???

ALRIGHT, here we go. Vaccine company draft - Please note: While I work in the vaccine industry, I have no insider information on any of these companies and I do not intend anyone to make stock buying decisions on my mostly joke power rankings. Also, I do not work for any of these companies.

Power rankings, IMHO

1. AstraZeneca/Oxford - Oxford is a 4 tool company, what it lacks is scale up. AstraZeneca provides that fifth tool and can play center field
2. Johnson & Johnson - Dark horse. They appear to be slightly behind on development, but they are the most capable of scale-up quickly
3. Chinese efforts - Rounding out the top three. A bit of a wild card
4. Moderna (Which I just figured out meant Mode RNA) - Very mature vaccine offering but has to contract out scale up from a company like Novartis or Lonzaf AG.
5. Sanofi - Makes my list because I use ACT mouthwash which is made by Sanofi
6. Gilead - Remdesivir appears to be Gilead's offering at the moment.
7. The field - I'm bored of this.

[bmags]

1 minute ago, Eloy Jiménez said:

ALRIGHT, here we go. Vaccine company draft - Please note: While I work in the vaccine industry, I have no insider information on any of these companies and I do not intend anyone to make stock buying decisions on my mostly joke power rankings. Also, I do not work for any of these companies.

Power rankings, IMHO

1. AstraZeneca/Oxford - Oxford is a 4 tool company, what it lacks is scale up. AstraZeneca provides that fifth tool and can play center field
2. Johnson & Johnson - Dark horse. They appear to be slightly behind on development, but they are the most capable of scale-up quickly
3. Chinese efforts - Rounding out the top three. A bit of a wild card
4. Moderna (Which I just figured out meant Mode RNA) - Very mature vaccine offering but has to contract out scale up from a company like Novartis or Lonzaf AG.
5. Sanofi - Makes my list because I use ACT mouthwash which is made by Sanofi
6. Gilead - Remdesivir appears to be Gilead's offering at the moment.
7. The field - I'm bored of this.

I would hope scale will be supported both through gov'ts and gates foundation efforts.

[caulfield12]

Can essential child care during Covid-19 offer a model to schools this fall?

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/20/us/child-care-for-essential-workers-lessons-wellness/index.html

[Bananarchy]

Technologically, I think Oxford or Moderna would be the most likely to "stick". The risk with Moderna is the novel vaccine. Side effect profile requires more attention than a more traditional vaccine.

But at least the Oxford one appears to work to some degree.

[Bananarchy]

1 minute ago, bmags said:

I would hope scale will be supported both through gov'ts and gates foundation efforts.

Oh for sure. I think you'll find a bunch of huge vaccine producers will be paid to scale up any one of these vaccine technologies. There are entire companies which exist just to contract out process units to pharmaceutical customers.

[greg775]

There are going to be so many new cases starting in August when colleges report. The kids are not going to stop socializing and partying. Closing the bars for good will help but they figure to go to their own parties in that case.

[Bananarchy]

Just now, greg775 said:

There are going to be so many new cases starting in August when colleges report. The kids are not going to stop socializing and partying. Closing the bars for good will help but they figure to go to their own parties in that case.

That's definitely concerning. We'll see what happens I guess.

[bmags]

 

 

[bmags]

This is one of the better resources for vaccine research. Some blog from stata had a guy do rundowns but I can't find it:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/science/coronavirus-vaccine-tracker.html

[Texsox]

I've been thinking  that this thing will run it's course before a vaccine is commercially viable. 

And by run it's course it will be at an infection rate that is manageable for the local health infrastructure. 

[Bananarchy]

31 minutes ago, Texsox said:

I've been thinking  that this thing will run it's course before a vaccine is commercially viable. 

And by run it's course it will be at an infection rate that is manageable for the local health infrastructure. 

Seems unlikely. For one thing, there are over 100 vaccines under development and 23 of them are in human trials. That's the "good news" side of why I think you're probably wrong.

The other reason this won't happen: The virus has been unbelievably deadly and the infection rate has been around 10%. Basically, this thing won't "end" or "blow over" or "run its course" before another 50-60% of the population are infected, and there's no way the health care system could handle that.

Edited July 20, 2020 by Eloy Jiménez

[Texsox]

A little irony. I am scheduling a doctor's appointment and because I traveled out of a very high infection rate area to a very low infection rate area and now back to a very high rate I have to wait 14 days before being seen.