Coronavirus in Massachusetts (Nantucket: farmers, firm, retailer)

[Cape Cod Todd]

President Trump is rightly concerned that the cure might be worse than the disease.

i just don't see how the average person/family can deal with a total shut down financially.

They are already talking about writing off the month of April and into May. How will people pay their bills when most don't have any savings?

I happen to work in an industry that the Gov. has deemed essential.. I'm a real estate agent and no one is looking at houses during this crisis which means if they don't until mid May I won't be seeing a paycheck until July at the earliest and being on the Cape with its seasonal market could mean I might not have a sale this year.



It doesn't make sense to shut down everything such as a small crew of guys building a house.
The Corona is a crisis but I don't think it is worth shutting down the state and country over.



What is going to happen next year when the Corona comes back like the flu does every year? Will we automatically shut down the country for 2 months?



People want to get back to work and back to life but this and how it is being dealt with could forever change our country and the world.

[AtkinsonDan]

Originally Posted by jayrandom

So you subscribe to her theory that it's been everywhere since December and seems to progressing in exponential fashion across the world because of air pollution, relative humidity, average air temperatures, and the popularity of smoking? Everyone in Wuhan took up smoking in December, and Italy took up smoking in late February, and then New York took up smoking in March?

No, I am just saying they are environmental factors that could impact severity and mortality.

[roodd279]

you can "believe" all you want - but there's no evidence for any of that. Use the facts available to you. Given free rein this virus would infect about 25% of us - or more. (Again, we don't know - exactly - but using the data we DO know.) It will kill about 1% of those. Mass. has 7M residents - that's, hm, say, 2M get sick, 20K dead.

Twenty. Thousand. Dead. Ya OK with that? That's what the data says. Not someone's "bad feeling about this." The only reason it won't be 20K dead is because of the "lockdown" we're all experiencing. MA has 89 dead right now. Here is your future for the next five days: 120 155 200 250 330. I'll stop back next week and see how I did. If I'm close, please stop arguing and stay inside. The five days after that are much - much - worse. Sorry.

[lrfox]

Originally Posted by id77

Time will tell, and I’m no expert, but Im thinking we’re going to get closer to the non-intervention numbers, even with intervention. I’m operating under the expectation every last person will be exposed to the virus at some point; maybe in a month or maybe in two years. I do not see this disease as something that’s going away.

But with estimates indicating that the difference between action and inaction is in the ballpark of 2,000,000 lives lost, you can understand why anyone in position to make decisions is going to choose action, right? As far as decisions go, it's a pretty easy one to make. Of course most people are going to be exposed at some point. Nobody has said otherwise. And while a month or two years may not make a difference to you, the entire point of "flattening the curve" is to slow the spread and prevent medical centers from being overwhelmed (which leads to a drastically increased death rate - just ask Italy) while also allowing time for the development of effective treatment and hopefully a vaccine.

[id77]

Originally Posted by lrfox

But with estimates indicating that the difference between action and inaction is in the ballpark of 2,000,000 lives lost, you can understand why anyone in position to make decisions is going to choose action, right? As far as decisions go, it's a pretty easy one to make. Of course most people are going to be exposed at some point. Nobody has said otherwise. And while a month or two years may not make a difference to you, the entire point of "flattening the curve" is to slow the spread and prevent medical centers from being overwhelmed (which leads to a drastically increased death rate - just ask Italy) while also allowing time for the development of effective treatment and hopefully a vaccine.

To be clear, I’m not opposed to action, including the current actions being taken. I am practicing distancing. I just don’t think it’s going to have nearly the impact the community is hoping for (unless you include tanking the economy as an impact). I’m pretty sure I covered that I understood flattening the curve to be to control capacity several posts ago, but that got lost in the replies.

I hope I’m wrong, but I suspect we’ll see the numbers revised upwards (again) in a month. A lot of people talk about treatment and vaccines like they’re a when, not an if. Until the medical community has verified a treatment or vaccine, they’re both ifs (including the fervor over chloroquine).

[porterhouse]

Originally Posted by id77

I hope I’m wrong, but I suspect we’ll see the numbers revised upwards (again) in a month.

Based on?

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by jayrandom

Or understand that Cape Cod isn't remotely self-sufficient? If those bridges closed, how long until everyone starved?

You can say the same thing about the whole state. Massachusetts isn't self-sufficient for food.

[mdovell]

and the thing is when it comes down to it look it's a spring folks. It's the spring it's not bad weather. Gas prices are down. Everybody still has running water and electricity. Yes things are closed but we've been through worse times. I remember around in 13 when that winter storm Nemo hit. I had a week of no power and no heat whatsoever with about a foot and a half of snow outside if not 3 ft.

Your power is on, water is on, internet works, supermarkets are open. Is your Netflix running slow? O the tragedy!

Look just stay inside.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by roodd279

Twenty. Thousand. Dead. Ya OK with that?

Dystopian Hunger Games: "May the odds be ever in your favor."

[jayrandom]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

You can say the same thing about the whole state. Massachusetts isn't self-sufficient for food.

You can say something like this for just about everywhere. Almost everywhere needs something from other places.