SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus (COVID-19)

the economy is fine, and there's no talk about shutting down, even in the bluest states.

the problem is, no one wants to work anymore, especially while extended unemployment and eviction moratorium are in place.

maybe we need a federal $20./hour minimum wage to make these jobs more attractive

 

Although my state has managed to keep itself largely out of the headlines that go to the more performatively reckless ones, it doesn't have a great vaccination rate, and I see now that both hospital systems in my county have returned to deferring elective procedures, a measure last taken here in January.

Since my own vaccination, I had resumed weekly pub visits with some vaccinated colleagues for a while, but I think I may ease back off on those for a spell, until the indicators move in the right direction some.

 

I think the source was ok, and the 1:107 number seems to be legit as a lifetime risk figure; it's just a matter of being aware that's what it is, and that the other dots on that chart (and most other risks, like flu, that've been discussed in this thread) have been given in annualized figures. The key might just be to do the quick mental "1:107 ✕ 330,000,000" thing and check for the "wait, how can that be right?" reflex.

As far as figures for COVID itself, we've talked often in total numbers, and for the first year that was super conservative ("hmm, we're looking at n compared to m for flu, but m is per year and we've hit n in four months!"). As now we're at 1.5+ years and counting, that's non- (and decreasingly-) conservative, and it would probably be well to consider Bob's idea of a window.

 

Perhaps low wages like the $10/hr sign I saw the other day. It means you can't afford rent, food, and forget medical.

Bob Wilson

 

How much government funding is this radio actually getting anymore? I'm having trouble untangling the web from conflicting reports, but the funding fraction appears to have plummeted over the decades. Here are some items:

Wikipedia:
"Funding pre-2000
During the 1970s and early 1980s, the majority of NPR funding came from the federal government. Steps were taken during the Reagan administration in the 1980s to completely wean NPR from government support, but the 1983 funding crisis forced the network to make immediate changes.


Funding in the 2000s
According to CPB, in 2009 11.3% of the aggregate revenues of all public radio broadcasting stations were funded from federal sources, principally through CPB;in 2012 10.9% of the revenues for Public Radio came from federal sources."


Congressional Research Service:
"June 22, 2005 – July 3, 2017

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) receives its funding through federal appropriations; overall, about 15% of public television and 10% of radio broadcasting funding comes from the federal appropriations that CPB distributes."


NPR, FY2020:
"On average, less than 1% of NPR's annual operating budget comes in the form of grants from CPB and federal agencies and departments."


Does anyone else have better datapoints?

 

R0?
...or is this bug/variant too new to properly assign a value?
Coronavirus: What is the R number and how is it calculated? - BBC News
(*warning* the R number range in the article is dated...)

Probably???
Enough.

They've "softened" their "not accurate" story from just yesterday......


One only knows that they screech like banshees and trod out Sesame Street every time their "paltry" government "assistance" checks are threatened.......

 

Are they deliberately trying to drive workers away? Oh, now I remember, some states still have really low minimum wages.

Its seems that there has been a substantial workforce shift. Not all that many died from the pandemic, but many did retire early during last year's business slowdown, or left the workforce for other reasons. That created a lot of room for other workers to move up the career ladder to better positions, leaving a lot more openings at the ladder's bottom. Then many near-minumum-wage employers have decided to raise pay, scarfing up labor from those trying to hold back.

This is also showing up as teens having a banner year finding summer employment.

 

Seems a good portion of workers might have just taken a lateral move into a different field. Most of the reports I'm hearing about places not finding workers are restaurants and retail. Jobs that can have ill treatment from management and the public before the pandemic.

 

and it is going to resume/continue as government leaves the onus on businesses to enforce mask mandates.
who wants to work in constant fear of customers?

 

that's another good point. some states have a much higher cost of living than others, especially housing.
and even geographic area's within states.

 

Lots of those movements out of frontline retail here too, but of the ones interviewed for news stories, it seemed that most were also moving to improved pay.

 

i would like to know what industries they are moving into. haven't read that yet. every article i have seen is just lack of workers, and workers who don't want to work.

i mean, we are talking a lot of people, and a seismic shift

 

If the state's unemployment rate is under 6%, those places that can't find workers weren't offering enough.

 

No.
But you are comparing a wide range of decades where the distribution mechanisms were wildly different. You started when TV was mostly broadcast from towers, so was expensive. Then cable was introduced and the same channel could reach more houses. And they do advertise (even if it is hidden) and they do run phone "membership" drives which only work when you have more potential eye balls. Ans, even cars/phone can get NPR podcasts today, on demand.

Mike

 

Anti-vaxxer influencers?

Mike

 

The stuff I've read hasn't indicated any critical mass of sectors taking in those workers. It seems broad and diffuse. The clearest changes have been in the sectors where they left.

Well, maybe I should mention a great increase in homeless encampments. Laborforce participation can be more difficult from them.

My state went under 6% in February, the nation went under 6% in May. Latest figures 5.2% and 5.4% respectively.

 

it appears the spike a couple days ago was somehow miscalculated - look at the death graph for Florida & and it appears as though that Spike never happened.

 

US overall deaths stood at 618701 on 11 August and 619723 on 12 August, an increase of 1022.

Florida deaths stood at 40171 on 11 August and 40528 on 12 August, an increase of 357.

That's 34.9% of the entire increase in US overall deaths that day.

I haven't tried to figure out what date fuzzy1 meant when posting on 10 August and writing "a couple days ago"; here I just lazily looked at the numbers from yesterday.

us.csv lines 570, 571.

us-states.csv lines 28955, 29010.

 

"Truth begins in lies..."
Dr. Gregory House, M.D.

We were told just a few months ago that the "Luuuve Gov" had all the answers, and that he showed world class leadership in the face of adversity (like: women saying "NO"...and investigations into elder death numbers.)

Maybe Florida (like California) will just continue to under-perform or over-perform - depending on the numbers "presented."

Viruses aren't interested in politics.
They're not interested in ANYTHING.
They're just BARELY alive. Viruses are not made out of cells, they can't keep themselves in a stable state, they don't grow, and they can't make their own energy.
They definitely replicate and adapt to their environment, BUT viruses are more like androids than real living organisms.

 

The crux of the matter isn't that viruses are interested in much.

It's that we understand what they are interested in and we understand how to deny them that.

If we don't, they won't trouble themselves asking why. Could be a worthwhile question for us though.