Coronavirus Thread

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GCdaJuiceMan

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Here's an interesting scenario in terms of the affects of the Covid-19 virus if social distancing and shelter in place policies weren't implemented.

https://www.georgia-demographics.com/counties_by_population

In GA, the three counties with the most reported infection cases are Fulton, Dekalb, and Dougherty. Fulton (1+ million) and Dekalb (740,00+)rank 1st and 4th, respectively, in terms of population size. Dougherty? 27th with 90,000+ residents.

Covid-19 cases:

Fulton:
Population - 1,021,902
Infection Cases - 1,844
Deaths - 62

Dekalb:
Poplution - 743,187
Infection Cases - 1,191
Deaths - 15

Dougherty:
Poplution - 91,049
Infection Cases - 1,308
Deaths - 15

If you've been to Dougherty, you know it's not anywhere near as dense as Fulton or Dekalb. Albany is the "big city" in that county. Their infection rate is 1.4% (2nd highest in the US currently).

Now extrapolate the infection rate of Dougherty to Fulton and Dekalb. Fulton would have 14,306 cases, and Dekalb would have 10,404 cases. Remember, the density of Fulton and Dekalb is far more than Dougherty.

Doing some tracing, the two events that triggered the large outbreak were a funeral and court case that called for jury duty:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/30/us/coronavirus-funeral-albany-georgia.html
https://www.law.com/dailyreportonli...read-through-the-dougherty-county-courthouse/

Something to also keep in mind about the numbers above: The infection numbers are for today, AFTER the shelter in place and social distancing orders were put into place and the events that spread the virus in Dougherty county happened a month ago.

So why is this of any concern. Resources (it was always about resources). More specifically, hospital beds:

https://www.ahd.com/states/hospital_GA.html

According to that survey, the state of GA has 22,000+ staffed hospital beds. If you model the Covid 19 after the US seasonal flu rate, and extrapolate it using just Fulton County numbers it becomes quite scary:

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/2018-2019.html

US Total Population: 328+ Million
2018-2019 Flu cases: 35.5+ Million
Flu Rate: 10.82%

Fulton County Extrapolated Cases using 2018-2019 Flu Rate: 110,569

Furthermore, something to keep in mind:

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/2018-2019.html

It's estimated that around 40% of the US population receives the seasonal flu vaccine every year. There is currently NO vaccine for the Covid 19. The Covid 19 virus has proven to be far more infectious than the seasonal flu.

So if you think about the impact, and not even in terms of death, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that this virus can quickly overwhelm hospitals, and in turn, quickly shutdown parts of everyday society even without our Shelter in Place directives. Remember, during this time, people are still getting other illnesses or getting hospilized for current illnesses (Cancer, strokes, heart attacks, etc.) or accidents so they will also take up beds and time from nurses and doctors.

Hate to point this out but I think it was just a typo on your end. The Dougherty death total is a staggering 83.
 

Jim Prather

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Your lack of faith in free enterprise is shocking.[/QUOT
Is anyone else’s Costco taking advantage of the China Virus with zero food items on sale from 4/15 to 5/15? All sale items are non food items; they’re taking advantage of grocery sales being up across the nation 35%. Seems a little crooked.

My wife worked for a company that supplied Costco, so let me give a little different perspective on this. Whenever Costco puts a product on sale, it isn't Costco who loses the additional profit, it is the supplier who eats the entire cost of the discount. Since so many of Costco's suppliers are small businesses and Costco is usually their largest account, and since so many small businesses are getting killed right now, anything Costco discounts could be enough to tip that business into bankruptcy.
I don't have a problem with Costco not discounting anything...
 

Milwaukee

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My wife worked for a company that supplied Costco, so let me give a little different perspective on this. Whenever Costco puts a product on sale, it isn't Costco who loses the additional profit, it is the supplier who eats the entire cost of the discount. Since so many of Costco's suppliers are small businesses and Costco is usually their largest account, and since so many small businesses are getting killed right now, anything Costco discounts could be enough to tip that business into bankruptcy.
I don't have a problem with Costco not discounting anything...

I’m pretty sure Coca Cola is doing fine. Grocery chains are making a killing during this China Virus fiasco. There was a report a few nights ago with the national sales manager at Kroger stating their industry is going bonkers, in a good way, and they’re up 30-40%. I’m sure the little mom and pop producers aren’t doing well, but I don’t buy them anyway so I couldn’t tell you if they are ever on sale or not. Most of the large nationals are always on sale, but nope not during China Virus. Lol. You actually gotta love it. #Merica
 

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I’m pretty sure Coca Cola is doing fine. Grocery chains are making a killing during this China Virus fiasco. There was a report a few nights ago with the national sales manager at Kroger stating their industry is going bonkers, in a good way, and they’re up 30-40%. I’m sure the little mom and pop producers aren’t doing well, but I don’t buy them anyway so I couldn’t tell you if they are ever on sale or not. Most of the large nationals are always on sale, but nope not during China Virus. Lol. You actually gotta love it. #Merica

Grocery stores be like: "How you like them grocery store margins now?" :D

Coke's business has been stagnant for a long time. Their stock price is $5 higher than it was 2 decades ago. Many people would die for a stable, low growth business right now, which is what Coke is. They need to get into alcohol if you ask me.

Grocery store traffic and revenue is up, but it remains to be seen what comes out the other end. Kroger's margins are 2%. They made $1.5B last year and have $22B in debt. With the higher traffic and revenue comes more personal shoppers, delivery, and drive-ups. Will they make money on that? What about as cost of goods on the supply side increases? Most people would love to have that problem right now, but they were barely breaking even to begin with, so they have to very carefully manage the business right now to ensure they're actually making money. You have your costs swing 3% the wrong way and you're losing money. Better to have that as your problem than be a restaurant shutting down, but there are a lot of corporate folks worried about their cost structure, daily operations, and the health of their workforce for sure.
 

RamblinRed

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RamblinRed

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FWIW, this is a pretty cool graphic to watch showing the daily growth in deaths of Coronovirus and how it stacks up to The Top 15 causes of death in the US. It became the top daily cause of death on April 7th
https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/1727839/

In terms of the death statistics in the US. Keep in mind that deaths is a trailing indicator by a good three weeks. The deaths you see today were basically baked in 3 weeks ago. (Incubation can take up to 14 days and the avg length of stay in a hospital before dying is 7 days). New cases would be the best one to look at (probably still is), though that is affected by how much we test and the testing in the US has not been good nor consistent.

I also want to add that right now I am probably watching what is happening in Asia right now even more than what is happening in the US as it likely gives of some idea of what to expect down the road. Japan expanded their State of Emergency to the whole country today. Really have no idea how bad it is as the government there has largely not tested saying it is a waste of resources.

in South Korea they are now reporting over 140 cases of someone who had COVID19 testing positive again. I'm hopeful this turns out to be just a testing issue, because the implications of that if it is not I don't want to think about.

in Singapore, after basically having it under control for months, they are starting to explode with cases (relatively speaking). The origin of the new outbreaks has been traced to people living in dormatory style housing (alot of migrants workers in Singapore), but their inability to quickly get it under control yet makes a future wave here seem more likely and more dangerous. Almost 50% of their cases in the last 4 days.

Singapore daily cases
eafd044852ab4c0b619ff4db5ac0fc2801e97255.png


Signapore cases on a logarithmic scale
063e1180802f65b2549b081a05b785e3e54e4cac.png
 

bobongo

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Read the whole thing, disagree with most of it. Well written and thought out. For me personally it reads like alot of utopian gooblegook.

Glad you read it. I found it to be insightful and thought-provoking. Through much of it he was trying to just make observations and think out loud. I don't think there's any escaping the fact that worldwide millions of children die of preventable causes every year, and it hardly raises a ripple in comparison with this. Something to think about.
 
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bobongo

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FWIW, this is a pretty cool graphic to watch showing the daily growth in deaths of Coronovirus and how it stacks up to The Top 15 causes of death in the US. It became the top daily cause of death on April 7th
https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/1727839/

In terms of the death statistics in the US. Keep in mind that deaths is a trailing indicator by a good three weeks. The deaths you see today were basically baked in 3 weeks ago. (Incubation can take up to 14 days and the avg length of stay in a hospital before dying is 7 days). New cases would be the best one to look at (probably still is), though that is affected by how much we test and the testing in the US has not been good nor consistent.

I also want to add that right now I am probably watching what is happening in Asia right now even more than what is happening in the US as it likely gives of some idea of what to expect down the road. Japan expanded their State of Emergency to the whole country today. Really have no idea how bad it is as the government there has largely not tested saying it is a waste of resources.

in South Korea they are now reporting over 140 cases of someone who had COVID19 testing positive again. I'm hopeful this turns out to be just a testing issue, because the implications of that if it is not I don't want to think about.

in Singapore, after basically having it under control for months, they are starting to explode with cases (relatively speaking). The origin of the new outbreaks has been traced to people living in dormatory style housing (alot of migrants workers in Singapore), but their inability to quickly get it under control yet makes a future wave here seem more likely and more dangerous. Almost 50% of their cases in the last 4 days.

Singapore daily cases
eafd044852ab4c0b619ff4db5ac0fc2801e97255.png


Signapore cases on a logarithmic scale
063e1180802f65b2549b081a05b785e3e54e4cac.png
One caveat, and it probably applies more or less to every country (although less so to South Korea where testing has been much more liberally applied), which is that the death toll is undercounted. Many have died at home and in nursing homes and not been post-mortem tested. For instance, in my home town ten people died in one nursing home here in a sudden spate and have not been counted. It is suspected they probably died of coronavirus. Of course a lot of people who are positive for the virus walk around without symptoms, and they haven's been tested either. The true numbers are unknowable.
 

slugboy

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I moved a lot of posts to the politics of Covid 19 thread earlier. Looks like a few more to move.

Some were solidly political, and some were just tangled up and basically inseparable and included the others as quotes.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 

RamblinRed

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FWIW, 7 Midwest states have created their own group to decide how to handle re-openings there - MN, WI, MI, OH, IN, KY, IL

President will be announcing new guidelines today.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/16/politics/read-guidelines-for-opening-america/index.html

Among the guidelines for Phase 1
14 days of sustained decreases in cases
return to pre-crisis conditions in hospitals
ability to set up safe and efficient screening.
ability to quickly and independently supply sufficient PPE

Document also says citizens should 'strongly consider' wearing face coverings in public.
Recommends schools stay closed in phase 1 and that people who can work from home should continue to work from home.
some large venues such as restaurants and gyms can re-open as long as they follow strict social distancing. Bars will remain closed.
non-essential travel should be avoided and vulnerable populations should shelter in place.

Implementation is up to the Governors to decide when the guidelines are met within their states.
 

bobongo

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FWIW, 7 Midwest states have created their own group to decide how to handle re-openings there - MN, WI, MI, OH, IN, KY, IL

President will be announcing new guidelines today.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/16/politics/read-guidelines-for-opening-america/index.html

Among the guidelines for Phase 1
14 days of sustained decreases in cases
return to pre-crisis conditions in hospitals
ability to set up safe and efficient screening.
ability to quickly and independently supply sufficient PPE

Document also says citizens should 'strongly consider' wearing face coverings in public.
Recommends schools stay closed in phase 1 and that people who can work from home should continue to work from home.
some large venues such as restaurants and gyms can re-open as long as they follow strict social distancing. Bars will remain closed.
non-essential travel should be avoided and vulnerable populations should shelter in place.

Implementation is up to the Governors to decide when the guidelines are met within their states.

Seems reasonable. The key is the availability of testing, which is essential to the success of this plan. Also, the decrease in cases should be not only sustained, but substantial.
 

Deleted member 2897

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In South Carolina, we had our daily new cases double from yesterday, back to near a record high daily number. This, more than a month after our shutdown, and out of nowhere after a long string of decreasing numbers. Mind boggling.
 

chris975d

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Wisconsin just announced golf courses are finally opening on the 24th! #Merica #Midwest
View attachment 8217

We’ve never shut down here in GA, and it’s been a freaking mad house. I haven’t seen this much demand in golf in my 25 years in the business. And it’s been bittersweet, 3-4 x increase in demand, and can’t take advantage of it at all. Revenue potential actually cut in half because of social distancing.
 

takethepoints

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Kroger's margins are 2%. They made $1.5B last year and have $22B in debt.
The relevant thing here is the $22B. One thing that we need to keep in mind is the horrendous debt structure of most corporations, both US and foreign. If their markers are called in - and that could easily happen as things get tough - then the level of collapse could become really serious. I know the FED is aware of this; that's why they've already pumped $3T into the economy. Query = will that be enough?
 
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