LouisEly

Now might be a good time to be a freshman in college. Sounds like dorms are going to be single occupancy. Gonna make hooking up a LOT easier.

Patients haven't been in the office - patient volume has been down 50+% and many of them have been seen by virtual means - so nurses have been the first to go. They still need ancillary staff to do the scheduling/billing/ordering. Yes, the recession was longer (this ain't over yet), but unemployment now is a lot higher than at any point in the recession, and the article I linked to showed a strong correlation between unemployment and suicide, not stock market performance and suicide. How about a study done during the height of an economic boom that shows a correlation between economic hardship and suicide: https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2019-09-06/economic-hardship-suicide-rates Ironic that this is one of the first sentences in the article: The new research ties high suicide rates everywhere to the unraveling of the social fabric that happens when local sports teams disband, beauty and barbershops close, and churches and civic groups dwindle. That was written last September. Dude, what's your deal? Do you not believe that economic hardship is related to suicide, drug/alcohol abuse, and domestic violence?

Your second paragraph that I quoted said, "but how could your friend possibly know that any of those 14 suicides were directly related to COVID? It’s impossible to know for sure". That's what I was responding to - you're correct in that it is not possible to know precisely, but it is possible to do a analysis of the data and come to a really good estimate. As for how many have been "saved" by social distancing, until a vaccine or treatment comes out they haven't been saved yet, they've just delayed it. And my point is if they're a victim of suicide, alcohol/drug overdose, domestic violence, etc., they haven't been saved from anything, they're still a victim of COVID-19. The only people who have been "saved" are those who were hospitalized in serious condition/ICU and medical care saved them.

According to the research that we have done, about 2/3rds of physicians we have surveyed said that they have or are likely to furlough or lay off staff. These physicians tend to see patients in a private practice or non-hospital setting. And no, I can't release that data, it's proprietary.

A NIH study of the 2007-2009 financial crisis concluded that every 1% increase in unemployment resulted in a 1.6% increase in the suicide rate: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24973571/ An analysis by the Well Being Trust estimates that the COVID-19 pandemic could result in an additional 75,000 deaths from drug/alcohol abuse and suicide: https://wellbeingtrust.org/news/new-wbt-robert-graham-center-analysis-the-covid-pandemic-could-lead-to-75000-additional-deaths-from-alcohol-and-drug-misuse-and-suicide/ If this is true, considering that an approximately 100,000 people in the US have died of COVID-19 to date, if you exclude nursing home deaths these two numbers as of right now are not that far apart.

That's actually part of the problem - there's too many good players. There aren't 2-3 main guys you can promote to build up artificial rivalries. Jack vs. Arnie, Tiger vs. Phil, McEnroe vs. Connors, Lakers vs. Celtics. It's easier to promote and get fans to take sides where there are only two, max three, and they appeal to different bases of the fans. Another part of the problem is that one of their biggest draws is a guy they want to keep quiet because of his past (Dustin Johnson). That being said, predictability is the enemy of engagement. How many people started watching golf after John Daly burst onto the scene out of nowhere?

Can you please share the source that says pregnant women and newborns are at high risk for developing serious illness? It's not on the CDC's list: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/index.html

The article I read said the brothers were in separate rooms.

I don't know about sous vide for a beef roast, but I use chuck roast to make shredded beef via the slow cooker. Add in a little beef stock and season with garlic salt and onion salt and comes out of the slow cooker nice and tender, shreds easily with two forks. Speaking of which, yesterday I heated up some leftover shredded chuck roast, put it on toasted & buttered marble rye bread and melted some horseradish cheddar cheese on top. It was fabulous.

Rewatching the UW-Minnesota game from last year and Kamal Martin came out of the game early with a knee injury. They said that he had been battling a knee injury the last several weeks, and that might have affected some of the tape on him last year.

Like the McCormick Place in Chicago, everything that was used to treat and touch patients was brought in and subsequently removed. Patients weren't sleeping on the floor, which is all that is left of those treatment areas. With a hotel, you'd have to rip everything out - the beds, desks, carpet, etc - and the walls/bathrooms are permanent structures where they were temporary structures at the McCormick Place and subsequently removed. Just bleach the floors and you're good to go. The air will get circulated through filters which, like airplanes, filter out viruses. Very likely. There is no shortage of hospital beds, which is why the McCormick Place/Javitz Center/Navy Ships were shut down. As of yesterday, Illinois was only using 25% of hospital beds for COVID patients and only 25% of their 3,000+ ventilators. Last week, the mayor of Austin, TX, said that over the last 20-30 days hospitalizations were down over 90%.

It think it's because every porta-potty I've been in the last few years has had hand sanitizer in it (and I always pump the hand sanitizer after I turn the lock on the door), and nobody touches anything in a porta-potty other than the door lock and the hand sanitizer.

The flipside of that is that the players are not taking any of the financial risk of not playing. That is 100% on the owners who still have non-player payroll, insurance, stadium upkeep, legal, financing, and other expenses without any revenue. I linked to the ESPN article on the original deal - there were stipulations in the deal that must be met for the season to start, one of which was that there can't be any edicts or other bans against large gatherings or other things preventing play at home stadiums. It is looking like there will be edicts or bans against large gatherings through the summer, thus the "original deal" isn't valid. I think the whole "don't want to honor the original deal" is spin put on by the players who may or may not be aware of all of the stipulations of the deal.

It's possible this could happen, but I'm having a hard time picturing it simply because of all of the signing bonuses and guaranteed money that's been given out the last couple of years. With signing bonuses you can't just cut those high priced guys because of the cap hit, and roster bonuses were paid back on 3/20; actual cash salary per year has shrunk in lieu of signing bonuses and roster bonuses. Even with post-June 1st cuts you'd have huge cap hits carrying over to 2021. And then there's the issue of the 89% minimum spend per team, which I'm sure the union will have something to say about slashing the cap. If they had to get down to that level, teams would have to cut so many good players and then it would be a free-for-all to try to sign as many guys as you could for league minimum, if they would even sign - many of the really good players might sit out a year feeling like the injury risk isn't worth playing for league minimum or greatly reduced salary. Quality of play - with so many good players cut and/or moving to different teams and/or sitting out - would suffer horribly. It would be a terrible on-field product. I think the NFL would look to obtain some type of financing first before taking on that magnitude of salary cap cut simply because a drop of that much would have so many negative consequences. To give each team $60M would require financing of just under $2B; the league took in almost $9B in national revenue last year, so they could easily get financing for that especially with interest rates so low. Then just drop future caps by whatever the repayment is each year (say, $10M/year/team for seven years accounting for interest). The Packers are sitting on something like $300M in cash, so they could be a beneficiary if it did happen and choose to lose money for a year without taking a big financial hit and/or cutting good players.

Are you a Tyrannosaurus Rex?

No, it deserves what it gets because it NEVER has long enough sleeves.

And give Keston Hiura's elbow a rest here and there too.

The home stadium shift from the earlier considerations of AZ/FL/TX did interest me. Is it a thing where the combination of heat, time zones, and finding optimal TV times make it difficult? Or are they desperate to gamble that there could be a point where late season could let them have 10%-25% capacity? Maybe it could come as a counter proposal to the owners', but just don't see how the players in particular would strongly prefer to be playing in New York vs. Florida or Milwaukee vs. Arizona under the current circumstances. I wonder how much the states complained about the "play all games in Arizona" plan, as the players pay income tax based on the state in which they play. Big tax states like NY, California, IL & WI would lose a lot of tax money if the games were played elsewhere. At the risk of going too political, most of the governors haven't really been making policy to maximize tax revenue lately and have sacrificed a lot more in tax money than what baseball players would have brought in. Baseball would probably only bring in about $7M-$8M in income tax revenue to WI, which in the grand scheme of tax revenue isn't much at all.

Grocery stores are now not allowing you to bring in reusable bags, and you either have to put the items back in your cart (good luck with that at the self-checkout kiosks) and take the cart to your car and pack them there or use the store's plastic bags which we have been continually reinforced over the years not to do. One of the organizations in my industry is recommending that plates/dinnerware/utensils at facilities now be disposable. Can't have someone wearing gloves put them in the dishwasher. Back to polluting the environment.

Three days ago they only had 13 and the day before was 25. The 7-day average since May 1st has been flat. And for being the second largest state in the union in terms of population (29 million), it isn't much. The people who are dying today probably contracted the virus at least two weeks ago if not more, so the May 1st opening up likely had little to do with it.

You think any hotel is going to want to be known as the place where COVID-19 infected people were housed at? That's a good way to permanently kill their business. As for buying hotels... how many do you think they are going to have to buy? It ain't just one - it's all over the country. How much is that going to cost? Buying hotels to house people with mild symptoms instead of giving that money to unemployed people or businesses struggling to stay afloat... that will go over real well. Just go home and lock yourself in a room. If you're infected, the virus is already in your house - going home isn't going to make a difference.

What happens if the hospital care providers catch COVID and all of them get hospitalized/sent home for 2 weeks? I get that. But let's just send everyone home so they're free to infect their family and they in turn infect people and so on and so on? Anyone that tested positive should have been quarantined from the beginning. Not the people that don't have it. Where else are they supposed to go, and who will pay for that? Most of the people who I heard tested positive and were sent home locked themselves in a bedroom or other spare room for two weeks and stayed away from their family. Others... don't live with anyone else. And have we established that everyone who has tested positive has the same strain, and that people who are asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic don't have a mutated weaker strain that isn't lethal?

I wish I could have seen that. Bob Uecker was on that one, as well as the famous match of Macho Man Randy Savage vs Ricky “The Dragon “ Steamboat. Do you have cable or satellite TV with FS1? Might be free on on-demand since it was just on over-the-air.

The technological innovations of just the last five years, particularly with respect to artificial intelligence and data analysis, have come so far that a relatively safe, effective vaccine will likely be available in record time. That being said, it depends on the data. I'm not anti-vaxx by any stretch, but I have none of the risk factors identified by the CDC that put me at risk for serious infections. I support my immune system with vitamins including vitamin D-3 and vitamin C and take a green powder supplement to help alkalize my body. I can't remember the last time I've had the flu, and I can count on one hand the number of times I've had a cold the last 12 or so years. The flu vaccine is only effective 45% of the time. I never get a flu vaccine because if it isn't effective half of the time, and if I never get the flu anyway, I'm just costing the healthcare system money for no benefit. I'll wait and let the at-risk people get first crack and then if there is leftover stock sitting around then I might get one. If they say you have to get one to do certain things (go back to work, take a flight, etc.), then I'll go get one. But I need to see really compelling data to get one voluntarily.

As of the end of April, as many Americans who have received stimulus checks chose to put them into savings (38%) as chose to pay rent (14%) or pay for food and basic household needs (25%) combined. https://www.axios.com/americans-to-save-not-spend-stimulus-checks-bb84737a-a924-4613-a471-169a07942da1.html