Reopening with a reduced maximum occupancy


https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2923-3


https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/12/16/opinion/coronavirus-shutdown-strategies.html


The Magic Number for Reducing Infections and Keeping Businesses Open

Except we really should be operating at 100% capacity. Not 20%. Because the weight of these restrictions could potentially cripple the economy. Taking extra safety precautions "at the door" of our businesses should be more than enough to ensure an adequate level of protection against excess infections.

 

Except we really should be operating at 100% capacity. Not 20%. Because the weight of these restrictions could potentially cripple the economy. Taking extra safety precautions "at the door" of our businesses should be more than enough to ensure an adequate level of protection against excess infections.

At 20% occupancy the actual usage rate over a normal business periods would be close to 50% as people and scheduling would adjust accordingly. I'd like 100% but that can't be scientifically justified as safe or realistic for places where the medical system in under stress.

Cases that set the limits of state power to shutdown businesses are slowing filtering up the chain. The state governments have almost unlimited police powers during a emergency but they still need to pass the means to an end/ rational basis test as a valid application of power.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/strip-clubs-exempt-covid-rules-judge-san-diego-california/

Two San Diego strip clubs can remain open and make their own determinations about providing a safe environment for dancers and patrons during the pandemic, a judge ruled Wednesday. The decision dealt a setback to Gov. Gavin Newsom's health order that calls for such establishments to be shuttered.


The scope of San Diego Superior Court Judge Joel Wohlfeil's preliminary injunction appeared to extend far beyond the two clubs that sued the state to potentially all of the thousands of restaurants in San Diego County, the state's second-largest county after Los Angeles. On Wednesday night, Supervisor Jim Desmond tweeted that the judge "has directed the county to allow businesses with resturant services to operate their business safely and responsibly."

 

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/phe-investigating-a-novel-strain-of-covid-19

High numbers of cases of the variant virus have been observed in some areas where there is also a high incidence of COVID-19. It is not yet known whether the variant is responsible for these increased numbers of cases. PHE will monitor the impact of this in the coming days and weeks.

It is not uncommon for viruses to undergo mutations; seasonal influenza mutates every year. Variants of SARS-CoV-2 have been observed in other countries, such as Spain.

This variant includes a mutation in the ‘spike’ protein. Changes in this part of the spike protein may result in the virus becoming more infectious and spreading more easily between people.

 

I just read a few pages back to the effect of "so you have been eating McChickens and Hot Dogs your entire life but wont take the COVID Vaccine because you don't know what's in hit. Hard cider through the nose. Look on the bright side. COVID serves a purpose, we can conveniently blame things on COVID. The USPS like anything under US Government influence wreaks of incompetence and inefficiency but now they have something to blame it on. I ordered an old Italian Christmas candy (Struffoli with Rainbow Sprinkles) which shipped from Brooklyn, NY to here in Cleveland. So I follow the USPS tracking number. Yep, left Brooklyn NY and actually got to Cleveland. Then it left Cleveland for, ready for this, Texas. Last trackable in Texas on a trip from Brooklyn NY to Cleveland, Ohio. It was only a few miles away before it went to Texas. Of course this was a result of COVID. Thank God no government agencies need to be efficient. Every problem I read about is COVID'S fault. They resent my candy Fed Ex and it should be here today.

Ron

 

Get your COVID shot and be happy about it.

 

I am actually waiting for the following - once things calm down, healthcare funding will be stripped down as it will be pointed out how fast space was found and patients discharged in preparation to "COVID" surge. Hospitals will be expected to run with less than before and find even more "efficinecies".
And of course COVID vaccine will become a mandatory yearly event, like the flu shot. And, like with the flu shot, it will (most likely) prove to be useless.

I really want to believe that the world got together and fought hard to defeat a common enemy by developing new technology, but there are many factors that just do not add up for me.

 

@Reloadron
That's how the shipping system is designed. I see it every time while tracking my orders.
The package goes right through my town past my house to a distribution hub miles away.
Sits there for a day before it gets sent back to my town.

It's called efficiency!

 

@Reloadron
That's how the shipping system is designed. I see it every time while tracking my orders.
The package goes right through my town past my house to a distribution hub miles away.
Sits there for a day before it gets sent back to my town.

It's called efficiency!

They're building a distro center here for East Portland for some reason (cheap land and utility rates) so I guess that's for efficiency from here for the 20 miles to the center of Portland.

https://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-...-for-new-delivery-waystation-in-fairview.html

 

What I hate is when it takes 3 days to get from California to the Distribution Center in Jacksonville which is 80 miles away from me. Then it sits there for a week... Or better yet, it then goes to the Atlanta Distribution Center (300 miles from me) and a few days later back to the Jacksonville Distribution Center.

 

@Reloadron
That's how the shipping system is designed. I see it every time while tracking my orders.
The package goes right through my town past my house to a distribution hub miles away.
Sits there for a day before it gets sent back to my town.

It's called efficiency!

Miles away? It passed through Cleveland and ended up in Texas. Where it still seems to be.

Ron

 

PM: NEW COVID-19 STRAIN MUCH MORE TRANSMISSIBLE

Boris Johnson begins by saying he has been briefed on the latest data, which shows Covid-19 is spreading more rapidly than expected.

The prime minister says there is "no evidence" that it causes more severe illness, but it does appear to be passed on significantly more easily.

Johnson says initial indications are that it is 70 per cent more transmissible than the original variant of the disease.

As expected CV is evolving to do an end-run round the tiny cracks in PPE/Mask/social distancing countermeasures.

https://www.cogconsortium.uk/news_i...ant-and-how-cog-uk-tracks-emerging-mutations/

 

https://www.rte.ie/news/world/2020/1218/1185398-south-africa-covid/

Known as the 501.V2 Variant, it was identified by South African researchers and details have been sent to the World Health Organization, Zwelini Mkhize said in a statement.

A team led by the Kwazulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform (KRISP), has sequenced hundreds of virus samples since the pandemic began.

Mr Mkhize said it "noticed that a particular variant has increasingly dominated the findings of the samples collected in the past two months".

South African doctors have remarked that more patients are younger, and do not always have other conditions that amplify the virus' effect, but are nonetheless suffering from more severe forms of Covid-19.

That "strongly suggests that the current second wave we are experiencing is being driven by this new variant," Mr Mkhize concluded.

The research team, led by Tulio de Oliveira, has shared its findings with the scientific community and alerted authorities in Britain, who have "studied their own samples and found that a similar mutation ... was the variant that was driving their resurgence in London," he said.

 

https://news.yahoo.com/overdose-deaths-far-outpace-covid-190713845.html

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A record 621 people died of drug overdoses in San Francisco so far this year, a staggering number that far outpaces the 173 deaths from COVID-19 the city has seen thus far.

The crisis fueled by the powerful painkiller fentanyl could have been far worse if it wasn't for the nearly 3,000 times Narcan was used from January to the beginning of November to save someone from the brink of death, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Saturday.

https://news.yahoo.com/us-records-most-overdose-deaths-215513172.html

Other substances have also been abused during the pandemic.

A survey of 2,000 American adults conducted in March found that the longer people spent time lodged in their homes during lockdowns, the more they consumed alcohol — with about a third of respondents admitting to binge drinking, McClatchy News reported.

Among the binge drinkers, the odds of consuming heavy amounts of alcohol jumped an extra 19% for every week of lockdown.

 

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1339939720558563328

 

https://news.yahoo.com/overdose-deaths-far-outpace-covid-190713845.html

https://news.yahoo.com/us-records-most-overdose-deaths-215513172.html

In BC, a province of about 3 million, we are at around 1400 deaths from overdose for the year so far. It far outstrips anything from COVID and as I have said before those victims are mostly young males.

 

coronavirus outbreaks at L.A. County supermarkets

Supermarkets have been hit hard by the unprecedented explosion of the coronavirus in Los Angeles County, further straining an essential service that needs to remain open despite the new stay-at-home order.

Outbreaks are increasing at an alarming rate across industries, officials say — an unavoidable consequence of so many people falling sick in the region. But those at grocery stores and other essential retailers pose a unique challenge for officials attempting to reduce coronavirus transmission, as well as for county residents trying to pare down their activities to only what is necessary.

 

CA and any other state can do whatever they want. This thing is going to run its course and that's it. Nice they got inoculation started but the show is far from over. When it is over we will need to fine another excuse for not getting jobs done.

Ron

 

Missed business opportunities during the lockdown?
https://www.news.com.au/technology/...t/news-story/ae446e951393402b962ef53b658c9b7c

A woman has been raking in the cash during lockdown just by using her accent to entice blokes.

Olivia Blanco, 32, originally from London, moved to Miami, Florida, just before the first national lockdown in March and has since made a whopping $1.7 million in less than a year, she told The Sun.

 

https://abc7.com/california-coronavirus-2-million-cases-governor-gavin-newsom/9025097/

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- California has surpassed the grim milestone of 2 million confirmed cases of the coronavirus, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

As of early Thursday morning, the state was reporting at least 2,002,494 diagnosed cases of the virus. It is the first state to top 2 million.

Just six weeks ago, the state was reporting 1 million cases.

In a few months there won't be any need for vaccines in California, everyone will have immunity from natural infection from the new mutations.

https://graphics.reuters.com/HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS/EVOLUTION/yxmpjqkdzvr/

The graphic above shows how the original L strain is almost gone, leaving G strains dominant in the current stage of the pandemic. That’s important because the G strains include one mutation that makes it easier for the spike proteins on SARS-CoV-2 to bind to receptors on human cells, potentially increasing the chances of infection and transmissibility of the virus.

 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/feat...accine-how-big-pharma-saved-the-world-in-2020

The World’s Most Loathed Industry Gave Us a Vaccine in Record Time

At the end of 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic started, the two best-known faces of the pharmaceutical business were the imprisoned Martin Shkreli and the lawsuit-laden opioid makers at Purdue Pharma LP. The rest of the industry was perhaps best known for the skyrocketing prices of its medicines. In a Gallup Poll of the public’s view of various business sectors, pharma was ranked at the bottom, behind the oil industry, advertising and public relations, and lawyers.