The thing is that it isn't a binary choice between "destroy all small businesses and let everyone go bankrupt" and "stop the spread of the pandemic." The economic policy response includes a spectrum of options.

In the US, our federal reserve provided unlimited quantitative easing to companies that had almost no reserves to deal with even a couple weeks of business shutting down. After that, our govt used taxpayer money to cut $10 million or $20 million checks to restaurant chains with large cash reserves under the logic that having less than 500 employees per location made them a small business. We have also taken a pretty long time to get $1200 checks to people who are already a couple months behind on their rent.

It didn't have to be that way. We could have structured residential and commercial mortgages such that a "pause" action automatically leads to loan deferment rather than loan forbearance. We could have provided more ACTUAL small businesses with funds to cover employee salaries if they agreed to keep their workers.

I'm hoping that we learn from this and come away more prepared if we experience another event like this in our lifetimes. What if the next time we're dealing with a virus with a similar rate of infection that kills 15% of children under 10? We probably won't have the will to go back to work after 6 weeks under those conditions, so we need to study the way that different countries handled this episode and figure out the best way to deal with various situations we may face in the future.

Btw Prairie, imo your "model" was involved in the worst match in professional wrestling history. I remember my grandfather ordered the event on PPV when I was young.

Good stuff mate.

Do you have any appetite?

What kind of stuff are they advising you eat/drink?

Are they saying it’s ok to take paracetamol/any other meds?

Over 200k dead in the last 5 years. It’s not Coronavirus but that’s not exactly a small number.

Got my SBA PPP funding today.

Which symptom hit you first?

When I roam around the neighborhood at night it's called "creepy" and often a "misdemeanor". You do it with the 'rona and it's all fine and dandy. FML.

Can I interest you in a business venture?

Boats and Hoes? White glove treatment?

Might be in if so

Just a guess, but Prairie probably wasn't peering into windows...

HU4rollz?

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

Fine, take the cop's side.

only 4 new cases in the whole of Australia yesterday

I can get a good look at a tbone steak if I stick my head up a butcher's ass.

That's 4 too many! We must keep the economy shut down until there are zero ever again!

i think for most ozzies it depends on the percentage of abbos that got infected

* Aussies
** Abos
*** meh

you know your joke was a failure when the intended audience corrects your spelling

That's good news for Breezy and Slim. Big Skip, you just need to cough a few times when you're out and no one will bother you.

The mayor of LV is the wife of Oscar Goodman. After her husband was finished as mayor, she took over. Mr. Goodman Esq. had quite an interesting list of clients in the 1970s and 80's. It could be said that neither is overly concerned about body counts when making decisions if there is money to be made.

Responding to some questions:

My PHN isn't saying much about what I should/shouldn't eat. More concerned about hydration, do lots of water, powerade/gatorade type stuff. Just keep drinking she says. I told her I was a professional in my early 20s.

I take LOTS of Tylenol. Lots.

Yeah, it was -2C when I went for that walk. Even had a winter hat on.

Fever - to be more specific, fluctuations in temperature. Had chills and sweats alternating every 1-2 hours for the first few days. Still fluctuates, but the time periods are longer (not sure if that's good or bad).

Got 4 consecutive hours of sleep last night. First time in a while. Positive. Learning how +EV sleep is these days.

NFL Draft tonight. It's Burrow time baby!

Someone please tell me I wasn't the only one who originally read this as Oscar Goldman.

Gclueless6milliondollarmannoobG

April 23, 2020 at 11:53 am ALBANY, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) — Cuomo released initial results of a statewide survey to determine the infection rate in New York.

In a sampling of 3,000 people taken at grocery stores across the state, the survey showed 13.9% of those had coronavirus antibodies, indicating they had previously been exposed but have overcome the disease.

Cuomo called the results “preliminary,” and said the sample size will continue to expand.

If that's truly a random sample and the numbers stay similar in larger study, that's good news. At that number we're not getting close to herd immunity yet, but it means that the fatality rate would be considerably less than feared.

More (valid) studies, plox!

It implies the current death rate in NY state could be ~0.6%.

Obviously, preliminary results, and more data is necessary. This is a hopeful data point.

And obviously, having antibodies has not been conclusively shown to be an indication of resistance or immunity (AFAIK).

Assessment of SARS-CoV-2 Infection Prevalence in Homeless Shelters — Four U.S. Cities, March 27–April 15, 2020

Early Release / April 22, 2020 / 69

...

Overall, 1,192 residents and 313 staff members were tested in 19 homeless shelters (Table).

When testing followed identification of a cluster, high proportions of residents and staff members had positive test results for SARS-CoV-2 in Seattle (17% of residents; 17% of staff members), Boston (36%; 30%), and San Francisco (66%; 16%).

Testing in Seattle shelters where only one previous case had been identified in each shelter found a low prevalence of infection (5% of residents; 1% of staff members).

Among shelters in Atlanta where no cases had been reported, a low prevalence of infection was also identified (4% of residents; 2% of staff members).

Community incidence in the four cities (the average number of reported cases in the county per 100,000 persons per day during the testing period) varied, with the highest (14.4) in Boston and the lowest (5.7) in San Francisco (2).

...