Formerly DT: COVID-19 - Featuring Lots of Politics, now CR because political talk not going away

[Royalfan5 2348]

38 minutes ago, Rusty Shackelford said:

Thanks be to the USDA. Shortages in stores, food banks empty, people going hungry; plan of action? Dump it on the f^cking ground!



https://amp.jsonline.com/amp/2938784001?__twitter_impression=true

It's not the USDA fault there is no storage, and the food service channel jammed, and we don't have the packaging capacity to swing it into the retail market. 

[JesusSweatDuck 17780]

6 minutes ago, Cheeseweasel said:

But how are we going to Nuke the Corona?

[SydneyCarton 47846]

24 minutes ago, NoName said:

oh wow. I spoke too soon. clearly silver bullet 85 is the best one. 

game over............lets go homeeeeeeeee!

 

Ahem. The correct nomenclature is BALLGAME

 

[pacman 7324]

2 hours ago, NorthLoop said:

Oh I know. I don't hate HEB - but at this point I would rather just do curbside somewhere else than actually go into their store. I feel like they aren't taking steps to encourage more curbside and less in-store. 

We are trying out target(one that sells food) today through shipt. Walmart curbside has been better than heb.

Edited April 8, 2020 by pacman

[NoName 16290]

2 minutes ago, SydneyCarton said:

Ahem. The correct nomenclature is BALLGAME

 

my line was from Dirk via The Ticket but i messed it up - "shut it down....lets go homeeeeeeeeee"

 

[Rusty Shackelford 414]

7 minutes ago, Royalfan5 said:

It's not the USDA fault there is no storage, and the food service channel jammed, and we don't have the packaging capacity to swing it into the retail market. 

Even if it's unpossible for the food service industry to package for retail, the government should step in and purchase the food service product and distribute to the poor.

[South Austin 52127]

20 minutes ago, UT_OB1 said:

Thanks. I would have thought if someone was doing a public antibody test it would have been a big deal. We will be driving to Austin tomorrow if this is real and there isn’t one in Houston. 

So @Chet Steadman's information is correct.  They are in fact performing antibody testing for those who have not been symptomatic for at least 8 days.  You'll need a short video consultation to confirm whether you qualify.  Cost of the test is $49.  They're supposed to contact me later to schedule the time of the test, and the provider informed me that it could be as early as later today, but possibly tomorrow as their testing schedule has increased. 

[SA-KC_Horn 1293]

3 hours ago, NorthLoop said:

I think we're done with HEB for the remainder of this. For all the caterwauling people do about how prepared they are and how awesome their logistics are, they seem to constantly be out of a lot of shit that every other store, including Wal-Mart has. We've done 3 curbside orders in the last 3 weeks, all had to be 5-7 days in advance. I set today's for an 8am pickup so as to hopefully get most of the things on my order. Just got the text that half of my order isn't available. Last week when I showed up, the girl told me that eggs had been cancelled off my order, but there were probably some in the store if I wanted to go in.. WTF. I understand that this is a crazy time, but it seems odd that they're not prioritizing curbside orders over the in-store stock to discourage social crowding. 

In my area of the 210, the nearest HEB was able to complete my order yesterday @ 9am. I am assuming they received a shipment yesterday morning, if I strike out on huevos and leche, then I go to CVS on Wednesdays,  since my local one restocks on that day.

[NoName 16290]

Just now, South Austin said:

So @Chet Steadman's information is correct.  They are in fact performing antibody testing for those who have not been symptomatic for at least 8 days.  You'll need a short video consultation to confirm whether you qualify.  Cost of the test is $49.  They're supposed to contact me later to schedule the time of the test, and the provider informed me that it could be as early as later today, but possibly tomorrow as their testing schedule has increased. 

please keep us in the loop on this and the process!

[Dahobbs 17437]

29 minutes ago, utee94 said:

Right, they're consistently revising it down as they feed their model more data and tweak their assumptions.

 

Well, actually, it started at 83K, revised up to ~90K, revised back down to 81K, and now revised down again. 

[GreenspointTexas 9559]

2 different hebs in houston had employees that tested positive for coronavirus yesterday. One was in cypress, the other i dont remember

 

been telling people, dont go to the fucking grocery store. Have ur shit delivered. Wipe down only stuff that needs to be fridged.

 

let everything else sit in ur garage 3-4 days

 

pretty fucking simple

[Royalfan5 2348]

1 minute ago, Rusty Shackelford said:

Even if it's unpossible for the food service industry to package for retail, the government should step in and purchase the food service product and distribute to the poor.

What is the poor going to do with 10lb bricks of butter? The processors are paying the dairy farmers for the product, and things are unjamming already, you just had some loads get caught without anywhere to go, and it makes great doomsday headlines. Milk gets dumped almost every spring by processors because this is the seasonal high, it's just that we are paying attention now. 

[Digdogger 1343]

24 minutes ago, GreenspointTexas said:

This. In fact, i would 100% drive tomorrow to austin if true

 

3 minutes ago, South Austin said:

So @Chet Steadman's information is correct.  They are in fact performing antibody testing for those who have not been symptomatic for at least 8 days.  You'll need a short video consultation to confirm whether you qualify.  Cost of the test is $49.  They're supposed to contact me later to schedule the time of the test, and the provider informed me that it could be as early as later today, but possibly tomorrow as their testing schedule has increased. 

 

[Pancho 44454]

5 minutes ago, GreenspointTexas said:

2 different hebs in houston had employees that tested positive for coronavirus yesterday. One was in cypress, the other i dont remember

 

been telling people, dont go to the fucking grocery store. Have ur shit delivered. Wipe down only stuff that needs to be fridged.

 

let everything else sit in ur garage 3-4 days

 

pretty fucking simple

Ehh, I wiped down everything (except fruit) in a mixture of water, bleach, and fabuloso.  I'd rather do that than let shit sit in my garage.

My curbside at HEB took a week.  I was fine with that, but the folks on nextdoor are saying krogers and wal-marks are actually well stocked.  I just don't want to associate with the poors. 

Edited April 8, 2020 by Pancho

[utee94 15745]

11 minutes ago, Dahobbs said:

Well, actually, it started at 83K, revised up to ~90K, revised back down to 81K, and now revised down again. 

Right.  So at this point, in recent days, they're consistently revising it down.  I'm not sure why you feel the need to "Well, actually..." people on this thread, especially when they're discussing things that are positive, but you tend do it a lot, which is what has brought you under fire from CTJ and those that like to deliver, and analyze, good news.

 

Edited April 8, 2020 by utee94

[Loco 3752]

GpT getting loaded up for the drive to Austin

[Nice Guy Eddie 13409]

One flaw in some of the new analysis and even old analysis is imperfect information. We seem to reply on an assumption that we have up to date testing. The other day Houston had a dump of tests finally reported, some tests waiting to be analyzed for a couple of weeks. The number of positives greatly jumped.  However we don't know how many current tests are waiting to be processed. Is it just 1 day's worth of tests?  10?  

Maryland has been averaging about 300-400 new positives per day. Today it jumped to 1,200.  Did they really experience 3-4x new people with coronavirus or did the labs get new processing machines to catch up on the backlog.  https://coronavirus.maryland.gov/

the point being that I don't know if the raw numbers tell us the full story without more context. And that context doesn't seem to be available.

 

[Rusty Shackelford 414]

4 minutes ago, Royalfan5 said:

What is the poor going to do with 10lb bricks of butter? The processors are paying the dairy farmers for the product, and things are unjamming already, you just had some loads get caught without anywhere to go, and it makes great doomsday headlines. Milk gets dumped almost every spring by processors because this is the seasonal high, it's just that we are paying attention now. 

Hi Mr USDA👋

I don't care what they do with it, but if they need it, I'd rather them have too much and let them throw away the waste.  Dumping it during a time of food shortage is indefensible. PERIOD.

[Rusty Shackelford 414]

This may be ok when there is no demand, but seeing this right now makes my blood boil.

[Judge Roybeanbag 11806]

1 minute ago, Rusty Shackelford said:

This may be ok when there is no demand, but seeing this right now makes my blood boil.

Just think of it as the millions of gallons of milk that get thrown away at school every single day in normal times, because kids won't drink it with their meals.

[Loco 3752]

6 minutes ago, Rusty Shackelford said:

This may be ok when there is no demand, but seeing this right now makes my blood boil.

well this isn't going to help

Spoiler

 

[Fudge Nuggets 19146]

I have had no problems getting milk when needed from any store.  I guess there's a milk shortage some where, but not around here.

[Royalfan5 2348]

7 minutes ago, Rusty Shackelford said:

Hi Mr USDA👋

I don't care what they do with it, but if they need it, I'd rather them have too much and let them throw away the waste.  Dumping it during a time of food shortage is indefensible. PERIOD.

Look I'm a commodity broker, all the livestock markets are basically fucked right now. They're in the processes of getting unfucked, but when dealing with capacity constraints, there is only so much people can do with perishable products. We're running bacon through rendering plants too, because there is no where to go with food service bacon in storage, or the logistics to move it somewhere else. It is shitty, but there's not a magic bullet to add capacity at the snap of a finger. Milk is being dumped because there isn't any storage or spare processing capacity. You can't even let it sit on tankers, because they're going milk the cows again tomorrow, and that milk's got to go somewhere. 

[G650 14086]

Just now, Royalfan5 said:

We're running bacon through rendering plants too,

Just direct ship that to me.

[achooloco 1065]

2 hours ago, heso said:

Nsiap 

 

Holy Fuck on the intro to that song.

[Incredulity 11559]

10 minutes ago, Rusty Shackelford said:

Hi Mr USDA👋

I don't care what they do with it, but if they need it, I'd rather them have too much and let them throw away the waste.  Dumping it during a time of food shortage is indefensible. PERIOD.

Milk is highly perishable.

It has no where to go.

Not sure why your blood boils over real world consequences of locking down the population.

 

Wait till you hear about back ups in Beef, Pork, and Chicken production  

[FondrenRoad 4378]

13 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

One flaw in some of the new analysis and even old analysis is imperfect information. We seem to reply on an assumption that we have up to date testing. The other day Houston had a dump of tests finally reported, some tests waiting to be analyzed for a couple of weeks. The number of positives greatly jumped.  However we don't know how many current tests are waiting to be processed. Is it just 1 day's worth of tests?  10?  

Maryland has been averaging about 300-400 new positives per day. Today it jumped to 1,200.  Did they really experience 3-4x new people with coronavirus or did the labs get new processing machines to catch up on the backlog.  https://coronavirus.maryland.gov/

the point being that I don't know if the raw numbers tell us the full story without more context. And that context doesn't seem to be available.

 

I think you can get better estimate by analyzing deaths.  Confirmed covid hospital deaths plus the delta between current home deaths and typical year home deaths would paint a better picture.  We will never know how many people actually have it, but we can figure out how many people are actually dying from it and extrapolate based on that.

Meanwhile, we have NY claiming a plateau while there are over 200 more NYC home deaths per day than there were in April last year.  That number continues to increase daily and none of those deaths are included in the NY covid death total.  This also comes as healthcare officials and workers are acknowledging that people are beginning to become afraid of going to the hospital. 

[utee94 15745]

3 minutes ago, Fudge Nuggets said:

I have had no problems getting milk when needed from any store.  I guess there's a milk shortage some where, but not around here.

I've had a problem getting skim.  2% and whole have been available but my kids really only like skim.

[Rusty Shackelford 414]

9 minutes ago, Judge Roybeanbag said:

Just think of it as the millions of gallons of milk that get thrown away at school every single day in normal times, because kids won't drink it with their meals.

 

4 minutes ago, Royalfan5 said:

Look I'm a commodity broker, all the livestock markets are basically fucked right now. They're in the processes of getting unfucked, but when dealing with capacity constraints, there is only so much people can do with perishable products. We're running bacon through rendering plants too, because there is no where to go with food service bacon in storage, or the logistics to move it somewhere else. It is shitty, but there's not a magic bullet to add capacity at the snap of a finger. Milk is being dumped because there isn't any storage or spare processing capacity. You can't even let it sit on tankers, because they're going milk the cows again tomorrow, and that milk's got to go somewhere. 

 

1 minute ago, Incredulity said:

Milk is highly perishable.

It has no where to go.

Not sure why your blood boils over real world consequences of locking down the population.

 

Wait till you hear about back ups in Beef, Pork, and Chicken production  

If only raw milk could be made into other products

Just in case you didn't read the story I posted here is what the industry is begging the USDA to do with the billions that got appropriated to them thru the CARES act:

Quote

Seven of Wisconsin’s largest farm groups have asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture to use its extensive purchasing power, and the emergency COVID-19 money, to buy dry milk, butter and cheese that normally would be going to restaurants and the food-service industry.

 

[Jiggy-Z 3432]

46 minutes ago, aggie08 said:

Well no, I doubt on June 1 that there will be a national proclamation for everyone to return to their lives as normal. There will still be social distancing suggestions and crowd restrictions. Some states/cities will rush back (looking at you Alabama), others will dial back more gradually.

But still, I get that by having avoiding a spike we rid ourselves of unnecessary and preventable deaths to due inadequate medical care rationing, but absent a viable treatment and/or vaccine are we not still looking at the same number of unavoidable deaths, albeit over a longer period of time?  I just don't get that the number of deaths just magically caps at 60,000 unless we get herd immunity or the ultimate number of infections is much greater than what we think it is.

[Mikey4 2476]

Thanks, it was at Remedy Austin, so you must have to call in and meet their criteria before you can get it.  My wife and her mom and dad had a weird cold or something towards the end of January.  My wife had the worst cough I've ever seen her had.  I am curious to see if they had it, but I doubt it will be enough to convince Remedy to test us right now.

Just call and see. I was surprised at how easy it was for me to get the antibody test. I don't even have all the classic COVID symptoms, but the provider said I should get the antibody test to be sure I don't have it. It was fast, convenient, and inexpensive.

 

Edit: I was negative

 

[South Austin 52127]

30 minutes ago, NoName said:

please keep us in the loop on this and the process!

Antibody test scheduled for 5:30 this evening at the Burger Center near Sunset Valley.  Provider said results will be available in about 15 minutes.  I'll report back to Surly.   

I'd love a positive to know that I've already had COVID, but I'm not getting my hopes up because (1) there's a decent rate of a false negative from what I've read, and (2) it's possible that I had some nasty flu-like virus that wasn't in fact coronavirus.  In any event, it's good knowledge to have, though I don't think it will affect my current behavior, i.e., I'll still limit my trips to the grocery store, won't start hanging out with friends, won't start fucking outside my current romantic interest, etc. 

[kevwun 15619]

I may try to see if she can get a appointment for Saturday.  She is traveling for work right now which is another reason I would like to know if she had it.

[Royalfan5 2348]

3 minutes ago, Rusty Shackelford said:

 

 

If only raw milk could be made into other products

Just in case you didn't read the story I posted here is what the industry is begging the USDA to do with the billions that got appropriated to them thru the CARES act:

 

You still have to have the capacity to process the milk into the other products and store it. That's the bottle neck. The government can buy products but until they've cleared the storage space, they can't keep processing, and they can't turn it all into powered milk because there is only so much capacity to do that. 

[Mikey4 2476]

I couldn't get through by phone, but scheduled a "video visit" for later today and will report if they are currently testing for antibodies.  In the online patient questionnaire, I did specify that my symptoms exhibited March 13-17, so someone should know that I'm not currently symptomatic. 

It's definitely the antibody test. They got 5,000 test kits over the weekend and started testing Saturday I think. The clinic is surprisingly not that busy, so I think they're being flexible about who can get the antibody test. You can wait in your car and get results in about 15 minutes.

[Cheeseweasel 26437]

Just now, South Austin said:

won't start fucking outside my current romantic interest

That reminds me. We need an update.

[Txzen 498]

1 hour ago, Captainant said:

 

Haven't seen much discussion here yet on some early challenges with HCQ treatments. Medical professionals, have y'all seen or heard much on this yet?

Yes, cardiac issues are a potential side effect of both hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin for a population of patientis even when given individually, which is why co-administration is potentially tricky. 

American College of Cardiology

Quote

- Hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine therapy should occur in the context of a clinical trial or registry, until sufficient evidence is available for use in clinical practice.

- Hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine use outside of a clinical trial should occur at the direction of an infectious disease or COVID-19 expert, with cardiology input regarding QT monitoring.

- The intensity of QT and arrhythmia monitoring should be considered in the context of potential drug benefit, drug safety, resource availability and quarantine considerations.

 

[Cheeseweasel 26437]

2 minutes ago, PittsburghTiger said:

Government bureaucrats dropped the ball.

 

Dude. Post this shit in the other thread.

[Mikey4 2476]

Antibody test scheduled for 5:30 this evening at the Burger Center near Sunset Valley.  Provider said results will be available in about 15 minutes.  I'll report back to Surly.   
I'd love a positive to know that I've already had COVID, but I'm not getting my hopes up because (1) there's a decent rate of a false negative from what I've read, and (2) it's possible that I had some nasty flu-like virus that wasn't in fact coronavirus.  In any event, it's good knowledge to have, though I don't think it will affect my current behavior, i.e., I'll still limit my trips to the grocery store, won't start hanging out with friends, won't start fucking outside my current romantic interest, etc. 

Not sure if they told you... You want to enter the stadium from the frontage road, and once you are in the parking lot, take an immediate right down a little road. You'll see the white tents set up. You drive to the left hand side of the tents and park in one of the spots marked with a sign. They also wanted me to text when I had arrived.

[dcar00 14030]

1 hour ago, kevwun said:

I would reckon that cancelling a couple of F-35's every year will buy a lot of gowns and masks and the latter will actually function like they're supposed to.

agreed or funding solar panel ventures

Edit: or stop/greatly reduce funding WHO

Edited April 8, 2020 by dcar00

[Hate 20103]

37 minutes ago, Royalfan5 said:

What is the poor going to do with 10lb bricks of butter? The processors are paying the dairy farmers for the product, and things are unjamming already, you just had some loads get caught without anywhere to go, and it makes great doomsday headlines. Milk gets dumped almost every spring by processors because this is the seasonal high, it's just that we are paying attention now. 

Fucking government always dumping milk!!

[bigup2dahorns 3343]

[Poe It Up 126]

Where is the evidence that wiping down groceries is the prudent thing to do? Everything I’ve read says that washing your hands after putting them away is sufficient. 

[South Austin 52127]

2 minutes ago, Mikey4 said:

6 minutes ago, South Austin said:

Antibody test scheduled for 5:30 this evening at the Burger Center near Sunset Valley.  Provider said results will be available in about 15 minutes.  I'll report back to Surly.   
I'd love a positive to know that I've already had COVID, but I'm not getting my hopes up because (1) there's a decent rate of a false negative from what I've read, and (2) it's possible that I had some nasty flu-like virus that wasn't in fact coronavirus.  In any event, it's good knowledge to have, though I don't think it will affect my current behavior, i.e., I'll still limit my trips to the grocery store, won't start hanging out with friends, won't start fucking outside my current romantic interest, etc. 

Not sure if they told you... You want to enter the stadium from the frontage road, and once you are in the parking lot, take an immediate right down a little road. You'll see the white tents set up. You drive to the left hand side of the tents and park in one of the spots marked with a sign. They also wanted me to text when I had arrived.

Yep.  That's the information they gave me.  I'm guessing folks like me and you who've had viral symptoms over the past couple months will start flocking to this test once word gets out.  If anything, it's more good information for our community to have on number of people infected, since they hadn't been doing testing on the front end for most of us who don't exhibit severe symptoms requiring hospitalization. 

[ShaggyBevo RIP 3868]

1 hour ago, Parliament said:

It's being dumped in manure lagoons to be later applied to fields (just like manure.)  I'n not sure why it's any more likely to end up in rivers than regular manure.

This is an odd problem, as many grocery stores have struggled to keep their coolers full.  I think it has to do with the supply chain shifting from a mix of retail, schools and restaurants, to ALL retail.  Add to that, some plants are having to run at reduced capacity because they have people out sick/quarantined.

Regardless, it stinks very much.

More of it is used in restaurants than at home.  Home is where alternative 'milk' drinks are taking off. Think about no shakes being sold in fast food or at Starbucks. Then add the drop in cheeseburgers and pizza to that plus no school lunch milk. No battered and deep fried shit at the Houston Rodeo.

Edited April 8, 2020 by ShaggyBevo RIP

[South Austin 52127]

9 minutes ago, Cheeseweasel said:

That reminds me. We need an update.

Let's just say that after this past weekend I had to tell her, "Baby, I am not from Havana!"

[utee94 15745]

4 minutes ago, Poe It Up said:

Where is the evidence that wiping down groceries is the prudent thing to do? Everything I’ve read says that washing your hands after putting them away is sufficient. 

You're not supposed to be BUYING groceries at all.  You should be growing and harvesting all of your own produce.  You should also be ranching all of your own cattle and keeping chickens and pigs in your yard.

Also, you should not be drinking ANY milk at all, unless you are an infant or toddler.

I have learned all of this right here on the surly.

 

[Cheeseweasel 26437]

Just now, South Austin said:

Let's just say that after this past weekend I had to tell her, "Baby, I am not from Havana!"

Fifteen is your limit on schnitzengruben?

[JBJ 3648]

20 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

One flaw in some of the new analysis and even old analysis is imperfect information. We seem to reply on an assumption that we have up to date testing. The other day Houston had a dump of tests finally reported, some tests waiting to be analyzed for a couple of weeks. The number of positives greatly jumped.  However we don't know how many current tests are waiting to be processed. Is it just 1 day's worth of tests?  10?  

Maryland has been averaging about 300-400 new positives per day. Today it jumped to 1,200.  Did they really experience 3-4x new people with coronavirus or did the labs get new processing machines to catch up on the backlog.  https://coronavirus.maryland.gov/

the point being that I don't know if the raw numbers tell us the full story without more context. And that context doesn't seem to be available.

My model doesn't rely on the assumption that testing is up-to-date or capture every case, so I doubt professional models would.

 

10 minutes ago, Jiggy-Z said:

But still, I get that by having avoiding a spike we rid ourselves of unnecessary and preventable deaths to due inadequate medical care rationing, but absent a viable treatment and/or vaccine are we not still looking at the same number of unavoidable deaths, albeit over a longer period of time?  I just don't get that the number of deaths just magically caps at 60,000 unless we get herd immunity or the ultimate number of infections is much greater than what we think it is.

Inadequate medical care has the potential to be a large number of deaths. The only other thing changing the ultimate number of deaths would be the mortality rate of the virus or the critical population size (therefore ultimate number of people infected) being change in their model.  The only thing SIP is doing is slowing it down.

Herd resistance develops as the cases spread so slowing down cases also slows down the development of herd resistance.

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

1 hour ago, Royalfan5 said:

It's not the USDA fault there is no storage, and the food service channel jammed, and we don't have the packaging capacity to swing it into the retail market. 

Yep, the guy who owns the restaurant next door to my studio is Salvadoran. His dairy farmer, father back home, is dumping all his milk because he has no buyers right now, and you can't not milk the cows.