Coronavirus General Discussion

[vnatale]

One mile or so from my house. I have NO interest in participating!!!!

Vinny



Singing through the dark times

https://www.recorder.com/Montague-singing-33751379

[vnatale]

During this have any of you purchased food online?

For the first time, tonight, I went to Amazon, Walmart, Chewy Pets to search on some of the items I always buy.

A lot of out stock. Some things cost similar or even less than what I normally buy on sale at Stop & Shop. Some things twice to four times as expensive!

My next steps are to take an inventory of all the food I have for me and the cats. Nextresearch availability and prices and then, finally, place some HUGE orders!

This Tuesday will be the four week anniversary of when I last bought outside food into my house. Tonight's meal was totally delicious. Usually I have two bowls of it a night but I had to eat three due to its taste. The two ingredients in it that I will soon run out of are cauliflower and brussels sprouts.

Vinny

[I Shrugged]

Coronavirus shutdowns pose grave economic risk, raising difficult questions

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/busine ... 191785.php#

“Breaking news: Doctors and economists discover that when people are trapped at home, very little shit gets done.”

I hope we all like eating at McDonalds and buying from Amazon. Because it feels like that is all that is going to be left when the dust settles.

[Kriegsspiel]

I tried to buy some bulk stuff (barley and oats), but those, and everything else, were/are sold out.

[vnatale]

I tried to buy some bulk stuff (barley and oats), but those, and everything else, were/are sold out.

This is strictly a result of everyone "stocking up"? All this sold out food is certainly not getting consumed currently? Plus, the restaurants are not buying food, though they tend to buy from different sources, like Sysco.

The six months before any of this started I was beginning to question myself as I just kept buying huge amounts of canned tomatoes and jars of peanut butter "on sale". Essentially buying all that was available on the shelves each time I saw them on sale. As I was bringing them down to my basement and seeing the bags and bags of them that I already had of them I was starting to think that, maybe, this was getting excessive even for me. But, in retrospect, it's bought me a lot of time on those two items and other items (like beans).

Vinny

[barrett]

Hey guys, check out Ray Dalio's latest virtual interview. It's a pretty meaty conversation. The gist of it? "We're headed into a Great Depression" he says.

https://youtu.be/yrxYhv2O3wU

Thanks for posting that, Smithers. Dalio talks a little bit about asset diversification on that video from about 25:00 to 28:30.

[Tortoise]

I tried to buy some bulk stuff (barley and oats), but those, and everything else, were/are sold out.

This is strictly a result of everyone "stocking up"? All this sold out food is certainly not getting consumed currently? Plus, the restaurants are not buying food, though they tend to buy from different sources, like Sysco.

Yeah, just as a lot of TP demand suddenly shifted from commercial to consumer, I think a lot of food demand also shifted from commercial to consumer. Fewer people eating at schools, workplaces, and restaurants, and more people eating at home. The supply chains weren’t set up to immediately accommodate that kind of massive shift in demand.

[Xan]

I tried to buy some bulk stuff (barley and oats), but those, and everything else, were/are sold out.

This is strictly a result of everyone "stocking up"? All this sold out food is certainly not getting consumed currently? Plus, the restaurants are not buying food, though they tend to buy from different sources, like Sysco.

Yeah, just as a lot of TP demand suddenly shifted from commercial to consumer, I think a lot of food demand also shifted from commercial to consumer. Fewer people eating at schools, workplaces, and restaurants, and more people eating at home. The supply chains weren’t set up to immediately accommodate that kind of massive shift in demand.

Saw an interesting article somewhere about dairies that are equipped to only supply milk in 8oz containers (for schools) and shredded cheese in 20lb bags (for restaurants). People's houses need much bigger milks and much smaller cheeses!

[vnatale]

Capture.JPG (21.54 KiB) Viewed 19510 times

[vnatale]

South Korea reports recovered coronavirus patients testing positive again

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-heal ... PONeUMzlks

[Smith1776]

South Korea reports recovered coronavirus patients testing positive again

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-heal ... PONeUMzlks

Huh.

So much for building herd immunity.

[vnatale]

South Korea reports recovered coronavirus patients testing positive again

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-heal ... PONeUMzlks

Huh.

So much for building herd immunity.

IF true, NOT good news!

Vinny

[vnatale]

Too Big to Fail, COVID-19 Edition: How Private Equity Is Winning the Coronavirus Crisis

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/04 ... m_brand=vf

[dualstow]

I was able to order online from a vendor at my farmers market that never used to have online ordering. So great to be able to go and pick up a one-time custom order (as opposed to a huge CSA share). Not cheap, though.

Saw an interesting article somewhere about dairies that are equipped to only supply milk in 8oz containers (for schools) and shredded cheese in 20lb bags (for restaurants). People's houses need much bigger milks and much smaller cheeses!

There’s a NYT article, Food Waste of the Pandemic, which is too depressing to even quote, for the most part. Lots of buried onions (“People don’t make onion rings at home”) and purposely spilled milk.

Regarding your note above, Xan:

At many dairy processors, for example, the machinery is designed to package shredded cheese in large bags for restaurants or place milk in small cartons for schools, rather than arrange the products in retail-friendly containers.

To repurpose those plants to put cheese in the 8 oz. bags that sell in grocery stores or bottle milk in gallon jugs would require millions of dollars in investment. For now, some processors have concluded that spending the money isn’t worth it.

EDIT: Here’s the link if anyone feels like crying: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/11/busi ... -food.html

[dualstow]

Amid Coronavirus Pandemic, China Bans Domestic Trade of Wild Animals, but Offers Tax Breaks for Exports
China disapproves of ‘recklessly eating wild animals’ as its Finance Ministry offers incentives to ship them abroad
Oh, CCP. I'll take Biden any day of the week. No more complaining from me
https://www.wsj.com/articles/amid-coron ... 1586683800

EDIT: { fixed broken link }

[Tortoise]

I hope we all like eating at McDonalds and buying from Amazon. Because it feels like that is all that is going to be left when the dust settles.

And it gets worse. After this pandemic is over, who in their right mind would be willing to take the risk of opening or investing in a “non-essential” business if that business can be suddenly strangled to death at the government’s whim when the next big pandemic comes along?

This months-long lockdown overreaction may damage business investment for many, many years, making the economic recovery much slower and more painful than it would have been had the lockdown been very brief.

[shekels]

Covid death rates per one Million population. as of April 8, 2020

39.3923648256 Deaths Per One Million People in U.S.


United States Confirmed deaths (absolute) 12,888
Population (in millions) 327.17
Deaths per million 39.39


https://www.statista.com/statistics/110 ... habitants/

[vnatale]

Covid death rates per one Million population. as of April 8, 2020

39.3923648256 Deaths Per One Million People in U.S.


United States Confirmed deaths (absolute) 12,888
Population (in millions) 327.17
Deaths per million 39.39


https://www.statista.com/statistics/110 ... habitants/

United States has 4% of the world's population. It has 32% of the world's cases or deaths (not sure which).

Vinny

[WiseOne]

There’s a NYT article, Food Waste of the Pandemic, which is too depressing to even quote, for the most part. Lots of buried onions (“People don’t make onion rings at home”) and purposely spilled milk.

Regarding your note above, Xan:

At many dairy processors, for example, the machinery is designed to package shredded cheese in large bags for restaurants or place milk in small cartons for schools, rather than arrange the products in retail-friendly containers.

To repurpose those plants to put cheese in the 8 oz. bags that sell in grocery stores or bottle milk in gallon jugs would require millions of dollars in investment. For now, some processors have concluded that spending the money isn’t worth it.

EDIT: Here’s the link if anyone feels like crying: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/11/busi ... -food.html

Fascinating article.

I am pretty sure this is not the only sad result of a severely dislocated economy. The economy has a lot of moving parts that rely on each other, and the cascade of events stemming from the retail closures is going to be horrifying to watch.

One possible bright side: I found it interesting that people cooking at home are eating fewer vegetables than they get on their plates at a restaurant. I would hazard a guess that many of those restaurant-served vegetables go uneaten, so in a way, the waste is simply being transferred to a different point in the food production chain.

[Ad Orientem]

‘There Will Be Losses’: How a Captain’s Plea Exposed a Rift in the Military...

WASHINGTON — The captain had reached a breaking point.

The aircraft carrier he commanded, the Theodore Roosevelt, was docked in Guam as the coronavirus raced unchecked through its narrow corridors. The warship’s doctors estimated that more than 50 crew members would die, but Capt. Brett E. Crozier’s superiors were balking at what they considered his drastic request to evacuate nearly the entire ship.

Captain Crozier was haunted by the Diamond Princess, a cruise ship of 2,600 passengers in individual cabins where the virus had killed eight people and infected more than 700. The situation on his ship had the potential to be far worse: nearly 5,000 sailors crammed in shared berths, sometimes stacked three high. Eight of his sailors with severe Covid-19 symptoms had already been evacuated to the Navy’s hospital in Guam.

On March 30, after four days of rebuffs from his superiors, Captain Crozier sat down to compose an email. “Sailors don’t need to die,” he wrote to 20 other people, all Navy personnel in the Pacific, asking for help. A Naval Academy graduate with nearly 30 years of military service, the captain knew the email would most likely end his career, his friends said in interviews. The military prizes its chain of command, and the appropriate course would have been for the captain to continue to push his superiors for action.

He hit “send” anyway.

Three weeks later, the fired captain is battling the coronavirus himself, 584 other crew members have tested positive and the acting Navy secretary has resigned. The secretary, Thomas B. Modly, removed the captain because he thought that was what President Trump wanted, officials said. Mr. Modly, the officials said, was keenly aware that his predecessor in the job had been fired after tangling with Mr. Trump. But in trying to please the president, Mr. Modly miscalculated and destroyed his own career.

Read the rest here...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/12/us/p ... e=Homepage

[Xan]

I found it interesting that people cooking at home are eating fewer vegetables than they get on their plates at a restaurant.

I was really surprised by that. I eat a lot more vegetables at home than when I'm eating out. I think.

[dualstow]

The honeymoon’s over.

Mr. Trump reposted a Twitter message that said “Time to #FireFauci” as he rejected criticism of his slow initial response to the pandemic that has now killed more than 22,000 people in the United States. The president privately has been irritated at times with Dr. Fauci, but the Twitter message was the most explicit he has been in letting that show publicly.

(This is a link to a live update and won’t work forever)
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/12/us/c ... dates.html

Looking at the tweet, Trump himself added a comment and never explicitly attacked Fauci. But, it’s pretty clear there is bad blood.

[dualstow]

How COVID-19 Has Impacted Media Consumption, by Generation
A Visual Capitalist Infographic
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/media- ... -covid-19/

even better: What Shoppers are Buying
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/shoppe ... -covid-19/

[shekels]

How COVID-19 Has Impacted Media Consumption, by Generation
A Visual Capitalist Infographic
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/media- ... -covid-19/

even better: What Shoppers are Buying
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/shoppe ... -covid-19/

What kind of Propaganda is this..
Where are the Guns and Ammo..

[dualstow]

...
even better: What Shoppers are Buying
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/shoppe ... -covid-19/

What kind of Propaganda is this..
Where are the Guns and Ammo..

Aisle 3, just next to the cans of Chef Boyardee.