New England B.S. Thread

Friendly PSA, if you have a trailer with those E-Z lube hubs, I'm dubbing them 'no-lube' hubs. Just tore mine apart, I've greased them 3 times through-out last year and this Spring using the grease zerk. The inner bearing seemed to be getting plenty of grease but the front wasn't getting any. Factory grease was red, mine is black so it was easy to see where my grease was getting. Inner bearing had black grease throughout so the hub was doing it's job there. Outer bearing had a little of the red grease left, no black in sight. Definitely worth the couple hours to pull them apart and hand-pack the bearings.

 

So here it is for you. The present "Herd immunity" number is 55% for Covid19. That means that once 55% of people have it new infections won't spread exponentially. They will diminish as they infect secondary and tertiary groups. Instead of 1 infected person leading to 5 and the 50 it goes to less than 2 per phase. Soooo..
We've had 84k in Massachusetts. The population of MA is 6 million. 55% of that is 3.3 million. 3.3M/84k is 39.28. We've been locked down since March 10. That's 70 days. At the present rate it will take 70 days x 39.28 = 2,750 days or a further 7.5 YEARS to reach an acceptable infection rate per our state government. How have NONE of the media groups in Massachusetts (or nationally for that matter) presented this information or worked it into a question about the state plan? The media are morons with nothing but a degree in typing. They start a story with a conclusion and find evidence to support it. They don't objectively look at the situation and ask relevant questions.
Feel free to share this info with anyone who thinks sheltering in place waiting for the government to save them is a viable plan. All of this data is available on the states own covid website.
https://www.mass.gov/doc/covid-19-dashboard-may-16-2020/

 

honestly when you start talking that timeframe too you have to consider birth rate. Wow that’s a lot longer than I thought it would be.

I think a lot of people are going to get to the point that we’ve leveled the curve as much as we can now. Unless a vaccine magically becomes available (estimates are about a year from now, as long as it actually works, we’ve been trying to cure cancer for how long....?) people are just going risk it at this point. Not just an American thing I think worldwide people were on board for the first wave but after that now gubments are saying year or more in lockdown and people are saying nah I’ll risk it instead.

edit to add. Won’t say who but there’s a Rhode Island manufacturer who has said they won’t be back in the office until at least Labor Day. The other side is how long even big business can last with this stuff too. I work for a multi billion dollar company and the longer this goes on the longer even big companies will keep layoffs. Amazon and Walmart are basically the only ones surviving right now. i just don’t foresee this lasting into next year without the General world population saying fuck it, gam gam getting the rona, we’re living our lives.

if anyone sees me shoveling with a bandana as a face covering next winter let it be known I do that anyway. Nose gets cold.

 

My BIL was an “I’ll risk it” person when it started and they locked down CT. He visited his mom in the nursing home in April. She got it. He got it. He was Hospitalized 30 days ago and put on a ventilator/medically induced coma the day he went in. His mom died a day after he was under. He made it 29 days on a ventilator and died this past Friday. Each one of those death numbers is a person that is no longer here. Kids that’ll never see a parent. Families that’ll never have another holiday with a loved one. Yeah, we can’t stay locked up but we need to be very aware and take all of the personal precautions we can. No one knows who will recover without any issue, who will end up with a life long debilitating condition, or who won’t make it. It sucks but I get pissed and a half when I see someone that says it’s my right not to wear a mask, etc...

RIP Sal, you’ll be missed

 

that’s sucks and I’m sorry for your loss. From my perspective I was able to work from home without issue for all of March before my employer said no more working from home. So my life is worth risking for their profits realistically, and large retailers are allowed to do the same but mom and pop bait shops for example who can’t afford to miss the season are told they can’t open by the same people who are telling everyone to stay inside while they open up their golf courses to be able to go play.

I’m certainly not a part of the gun toting flag waving batch protesting masks, I’m wearing a mask etc., but I’m also seeing both sides to it. Usually I’m squarely on one side and understand the other side (not to get political again, but let’s say on any issue realistically, immigration, budget and spending, abortion, whatever). I have my position and at least understand the opposite. But this time I genuinely flip flop day to day. Not to either extreme (forced lock down vs gun toting protests) but between Sweden’s approach of screw it herd immunity let’s get out world back and don’t sneeze on me at the store etc.

It’s a tough position for everyone. Elderly relatives are lost, hell my great grandmother is 102 I worry about her. But I also worry about my old teenage job of a guy owning a pizza shop, who might be able to make this year happen, but plenty of people just can’t - their livelihoods are all jacked up and they’re probably going into financial ruin. My wife is a yoga instructor, someone basically had put their whole life savings into opening a yoga studio about a month before this whole thing happened. There’s risks and losses no matter what we do, which is why I’m flip flopping constantly rather than knowing a position on this one.

 

Sorry for your losses. That has got to be tough. I have never been against at risk crowds from isolating and taking all the precautions they need to, I think they SHOULD be doing that. I'm honestly surprised they let him come visit at that point. Nursing homes were known hotspots and the populations there were at obvious risk. A lot of governors and nursing homes are going to be deep in law suites when this settles down.

Did your BIL have any underlying conditions? There seem to be very few deaths for people without any.


Hope you guys are able to take care of arrangements without too many hoops with all that is going on with this.

 

Thanks for the thoughts. He had mild diabetes. No other underlying issues. However, he didn’t think it was as big of an issue as it really is. And here we are. It’s hard on the family he left behind. His kids not only lost their father, but also their grandmother.

 

The irony in this is we know this is being politicized...as Rahm Emanuel said "never let a serious crisis go to waste"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb-YuhFWCr4

Both sides are even on an instinctive level using this as a major piece in the election process. As the democrats fight for the lock downs they are only strengthening the very organizations they have demonized for decades. The mom and pop shops are going out of business. The 3 or 4 major retailers "big business" are going to grow exponentially...and republicans are now fighting for the small mom and pops...it's crazy. 1/2 the country is so hell bent on destroying Trump at any cost that they will allow themselves to become fiscally helpless...And here is where the democrats jump in with more free money for everything. They thrive on the community at large being dependent on the government. There are people right now who a year ago never would have dreamed of taking a government hand out instead of working. Now they have no choice. They literally are not allowed to work....and then House presents an absurd "corona relief" bill that of course is called the "HEROES" bill..why not...after all we called that other one the Patriot Act..well that bill is of course never going to pass because instead of placing the real people first they loaded it with so much inane cash it can't be passed. They of course know this. They want it to fail. They can then point to the President and say "See he doesn't love you like we do..." and because the free money they are now dependent on is not coming again they have people convinced it's Trumps fault and not the fault of the House for presenting an unpassable bill...
I am middle of the road as far as politics goes, but in Massachusetts I'm probably considered far right and in Wyoming I'd be a northern hippie liberal...I can see that on one hand the President is in over his head commenting on anything medical (as would any lawyer elected president...The only presidential candidate in the last election that can tell you what the base pairs of DNA are was Ben Carson and he's now United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development) On the other hand anyone feigning that they "would have done it better" shut up, no you wouldn't have because you were nowhere to be found until you crafted a "here's why it's your fault" story...The only "would have done it better" would have to involve public beatings like in india and china because americans aren't going to stay inside. We have enormous amounts of free space...They incentivized the diagnosis of Covid19 as soon as they placed a fiscal benefit on diagnosing it. Elon Musk broke it down succinctly on Joe Rogan. He's the first person I've seen really point out an issue I've had all along. The death rate is unknown because ANY death can be categorized as Covid19 and then get paid $$ by the government for the treatment. The more we close down hospitals the more they have to diagnose covid so they can get more money.
CUED TO THE SPOT ON CLICK
https://youtu.be/RcYjXbSJBN8?t=5232

This is tragic. It really sucks and underscores the importance of not going near those most at risk. It's of little help now but the reason diabetics, even mild ones, are at so much of a risk is the ACE2 link to covid infection. Anyone who has 'blood flow issues' high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity...your body makes more ACE2...Even men have more ACE2 than women and that the theory as to why more men are dying.

People with the underlying risk factors are exponentially more likely to die. I'm by no means calling for a free for all...But we need to open up, with masks and social distancing. It's the only solution that could work...
You can watch this if you want..It describes the roles of ACE inhibitors and ACE2...and the bodies response to these resulting in more ACE2 binding...
.
CUED TO THE SPOT ON CLICK
https://youtu.be/1vZDVbqRhyM?t=73

 

Oh,
and the Dead ZONE predicted this...and the cure...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jY6-HvE5YdU

 

don’t remember if it was here or the investment bs thread but I posted an article that said China wasn’t reporting positives that weren’t showing symptoms, so a symptomatic PTs who recover are not counted in the death rate. So even by design their process is flawed let alone the Chinese media’s tendency toward factual reporting all the time.

it all just kind of stinks a bit. Political opinions aside it all just stinks a bit of not being real data and numbers used, for anything. I will say R.I. has one good thing. Their reopening plan used hospital bed count as a metric. What they’re counting as beds, who knows, but the principal of it is the core point there. This whole flatten the curve thing was to alleviate hospital strain. If we’re doing that....great. Seems like we can open to the next stage and see where we can get to.

 

I just want to go here http://www.tillyscheesesteaks.com/ I was going to see a comedian at Foxwoods JUST before this shit went down...I was going to drive from work, Across RI, Hit Tilly's and then the show...nope. Now the show is "Late September" maybe...and who knows if it's safe or not...I would wear a mask and go and just not eat or drink anything.

 

For me it's not the "I just want to do x". I've basically been able to do everything I've wanted to do. Trails with the dog, check. Going to work, check (it's amazing what going to work every day does for your mental health). Vehicle maintenance, check. Everything has been fine so far. I just hate to see everyone losing everything they've spent 30+ years building being lost in a few months. Growing up in a beach town, memorial day weekend is 10% of the year for most places let alone the rest of the summer too.

 

comedy shows masks aren’t too expensive



Imagine seeing a guy with this on in the store

 

Jokes aside going into a liquor store with your face covered feels weird.

 

I do love Joe Rohan and enjoy his podcast. I even like Elon Musk and think his ideas with solar energy, Tesla, Space X, etc are awesome. WHY would we listen to Elon Musk regarding hospital statistics, metrics, diagnostics, etc? He’s a famous engineer who’s might be a genius but it has no bearing on his knowledge into medicine. It’s the celebrity effect. I work in healthcare, although not on the billing aspect, but I can promise I've never been told to or asked to diagnose more people with COVID. In fact I attempt to send stable patients with COVID home daily to save space in the hospital for sick patients. Could there be some merit to his idea that the diagnosis of COVID has higher reimbursement, sure! In fact he is in Southern Cali I believe which has seen far fewer cases than this area so those hospitals are likely hurting financially and may be fishing for more money but let’s stick to facts and knowledge regarding the pandemic from people in the medical field.

MedCram is a solid source with helpful information but let’s not forget the most important part of all this - NOBODY KNOWS EVERYTHING ABOUT COVID. Viruses are dynamic and change often so it’s important to acknowledge that what we know will change and the virus itself will change as well.

Lastly we need to remember the states are in effect in the idea that people are complete and utter morons. If we treat all people like morons, there’s a chance they listen/understand. If we make complex plans to reintroduce the general public with loopholes/exceptions/etc it’s too confusing and people just disregard them. You wouldn’t believe how stupid some of the people are in the general community.....maybe some of you have seen it as well, let’s be honest

TLR - it’s a virus we know little to nothing about and it changes daily. Listen to the medical experts in the field. Use common sense and try to follow the reasonable rules.

 

To point out....The news would report this post as "Medical Community Says People are Morons" We will see what happens in the next 3 months as converted covid treatment centers shut down due to financial issues. It's clear that there is a fiscal benefit to declaring a death covid related and this comes from the CDC's on guidelines. If a patient is believed to be Covid19 positive the death is to be classified as a Covid19 death. This results in over reported death #'s. This combined with a lack of general testing creates a situation where the stats will look like increased death rates.
I'm not any kind of crazy denier or anything. The issue is if states are making public health decisions based on skewed numbers we'll be locked up forever. It was flatten the curve, not wait for a vaccine. Massachusetts has had 24 deaths under age 40 and zero under age 20 out of 5,797 cases to date.

 

Your 1st paragraph is exactly why drop out Bill Gates should have nothing to do with a vaccine or any medical or schooling decisions. He has no degree from any college for ANYTHING. He's a tech nerd, that's it. I know we are talking about Musk, but I agree. These guys are PROS at what they are doing, but aren't medical guys.

As far as trusting the "pros", the problem I have with this is, they aren't pros. CDC was WAYYYYYY off on all their predictions and even had to totally redo their death tolls. China who has the most experience, is lying their ass off and we can't believe anything from there. Our own predictions keep changing by the day. Hell, Fauci is on 60 minutes a month ago saying we don't need to wear a mask! So what "pro" actually is trustworthy when in your own words "no one knows everything". These "pros" just keep extending the lockdown with no end in sight.

And lastly, I'm so fucking sick of peoples fears and stupidity being a reason for my RIGHTS to be taken and infringed. There is no law or ** in the constitution. The scared and sick need to stay home and let the rest of us live.


/end rant.

 

Can we PLEASE stop talking about COVID in here? It sucks for everyone right now, but I'm sick and tired of reading about it EVERYWHERE. Whatever side you're on, I don't care, I'm just sick of it.

I've given up reading the news, FB, Reddit, every other forum I'm on. This is the one area I can read without having politics and general BS of the world spew into whatever we're discussing. I don't want to have to log out of here as well.

 

I get that, and agree thinking about it. Ill stop!

 

Anyone have any interest in some stock T4r OR tires? Less than 10k on them.