D&D and the rising pandemic

[generic]

The main problem facing hospitals and medical professionals at the moment is a lack of ICU beds, Mechanical Ventilators, and N95-grade respirators. My family is donating a backlog of N95 respirators which we own to a local hospital in the United States.

The best thing you could do now is come up with a way to replace the regulator system in the mechanical ventilator with something more easily manufactured. I would posit a few motors and valves controlled by a lightweight Raspberry Pi controller, but medical professionals would know far more than I do about how a mechanical ventilator's regulator unit functions.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

I think my job location is doomed. There is a 19yo female cook here who missed most of a week being sick. She is back at work today because the doctor did not think she had the virus because her fever was not high enough. So she was not isolated for the normal 14 days.

 

[Zardnaar]

Nah, I get it. We already have a spare bedroom and bathroom in the basement. We've already decided that when I go back to the office (she always works from home) that's where I'll be sleeping. Or if either one of us gets sick.

You're about the third to make that joke or something similar in the last day or so.

I remember back in 1999/2000 people would ASL you. Male, 22, NZ any that were F, 20,USA were a bit suspicious type.

Few years ago they started asking about NZ or if you're married as happened last year.

 

[Zardnaar]

I think my job location is doomed. There is a 19yo female cook here who missed most of a week being sick. She is back at work today because the doctor did not think she had the virus because her fever was not high enough. So she was not isolated for the normal 14 days.

They made it simple here. All takeaways and restaurants closed. In 10 hours we're in level 4 lockdown. Big box stores also closing.

Big box hardware stores can supply trades but not normal retail.

 

[seebs]

I think a lot of people miss the subtle point that the people who die never come back to work, necromancy not being reliably available to us.

Epidemiologists aren't idiots. They're aware that lockdowns are expensive, but they're also the only chance you get to slow things down enough to either actually get the thing contained, or get some time to build the medical machinery you need, or whatever else comes along.

 

[seebs]

Side note: the "7M" number for the Great Depression seems to come from Pravda, so I'd take it with a salt lake.

 

[Zardnaar]

Modern Pravda or ye olde USSR Pravda?

 

[Umbran]

Side note: the "7M" number for the Great Depression seems to come from Pravda, so I'd take it with a salt lake.

Great. Well, toss that number out, then. Not worth the electrons it is written with.

Edit: I feel this bears mentioning - changing your mind when shown your data isn't good is absolutely necessary in times like these.

 

[Umbran]

Last week, I read one official believed this outbreak of Covid-19 would ultimately infect 1/4 of the world’s population. If the estimated 1% death rate proves accurate, that’s something like 25M deaths.

Be careful - one of you may be talking deaths in the USA, and the other worldwide.

Okay, so let us talk about models for a moment.

Like opinions, everyone has one. And they don't all agree. They aren't even very close to agreeing. Even for a given model, the admitted breadth between the best and worst cases is very large. Which amounts to saying, nobody actually knows. The only consensus available is... it is bad, and needs some pretty drastic action to reduce the consequences.

Infectious Disease Experts Don’t Know How Bad The Coronavirus Is Going To Get, Either

Graphics by Anna Wiederkehr One of the most pernicious parts of the COVID-19 crisis is how uncertain everything is. Researchers and officials cite statistical m…

fivethirtyeight.com

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Be careful - one of you may be talking deaths in the USA, and the other worldwide.

Okay, so let us talk about models for a moment.

Like opinions, everyone has one. And they don't all agree. They aren't even very close to agreeing. Even for a given model, the admitted breadth between the best and worst cases is very large. Which amounts to saying, nobody actually knows. The only consensus available is... it is bad, and needs some pretty drastic action to reduce the consequences.

Infectious Disease Experts Don’t Know How Bad The Coronavirus Is Going To Get, Either

Graphics by Anna Wiederkehr One of the most pernicious parts of the COVID-19 crisis is how uncertain everything is. Researchers and officials cite statistical m…

fivethirtyeight.com

A UK expert- commenting on the story that DC might be contemplating relaxing the current strictures to boost the economy- cautioned that the USA alone could see as many as 2.2M deaths from Covid-19.

Another recent article talked about a US MD who treated Ebola...and then contracted it. He, too, is stunned at how bad things are.

So yeah, numbers are all over the place, but most of the actual experts think this is a bad one. Very bad.