Why don't they have health insurance?

Not if it leads said society to make bad decisions. On a society-wide basis the trouble with such a list is that at times like these it leads governments to pick a cut off point and ban everything riskier than a certain level, rather than do some proper risk vs. reward analysis, as an individual hopefully would. Then we end up with ridiculous situations where the restrictions on having the one single wedding of your life and inviting people to it are more or less the same as the restrictions on inviting people to go on the forty-seventh pub crawl of your life (the example is obviously jurisdiction and time specific, there will also be places and times where this is being got right).

What about a situation where the air is 105-120 degrees (most saunas say it's between 40 and 50 in Celsius) and the humidity is 100 percent? How soon would that kill it? Was in the steam room at the sauna again and there were a few more people than last time. The place actually says they keep the temperature in the steam sauna "under 75 degrees celsius", but that's way more than any other place says it is, so I'm assuming it's a long way under 75 degrees.

There is always the dry sauna, which people say is 100 degrees C (212 F) and less than 5 percent humidity.

Which of those do we think the virus would survive shortest in and/or stay suspended/aerosolized shortest in (and are we talking seconds, minutes or hours)?

Well there's still time to catch up. Without a vaccine I still think it will get through almost everyone in the end, so we'll see how well the health system can actually do at saving people once they get it. Generally people aren't willing to go for a second lockdown almost no matter what - just school by school, company by company as outbreaks occur.
They beat it before but then it just came back because they didn't keep the borders closed - because Bratislava is right on the border and all the decision makers have wives and mistresses who want to go shopping in Vienna, kids who want to go on holiday to the med and a load of friends who've bought cheap second homes across the border in the villages of Hungary and Austria.

But yes, if you turn the numbers around if the USA had the death rate of Slovakia #154 (current deaths per million ranking) then it would have more than 200000 fewer deaths. Politics is a game played for massive stakes.

I would add to that though that outside of epidemiology, a country like the USA or UK has other advantages from having a citizenry that is about as easy to herd as cats.

We have now have corona sniffing dogs in Finland! They are training more dogs at the University of Pennsylvania.

https://apnews.com/c93538b825d86908a480b2af6d36843b

Sweden now proposing lockdowns. Oops.

Seems to me this rank order is only actually important when the activities are realistic substitutes for one another, or otherwise have similar benefit profiles.

Depends on which N95 you have.
https://news.mit.edu/2020/mit-lincol...20micrometers.

It's not rocket science. A person with rona exhales and you breathe in that air = bad.

If there's a breeze in that outdoor bar I'm making sure I'm upwind of people.
That way my exhaled breath will drift toward them instead of the opposite.

If you look around the outdoor bar and don't know who the next case is likely to be ...

I think this is technically true. I believe for a large part of the population at this point, myself included, we're willing to substitute a lot of activities for each other in the name of safety and minimizing odds of spreading the disease, but not willing to simply stay home until there's a vaccine. Nudges in the right direction would really help.

And it should go without saying that it's a shame I have to ask 2+2 for this info, but local governments have been horrendous at this prioritization. DC requires masks outside but allows indoor dining; I think chicago closed their beaches all summer but also allows indoor dining.

Indoor dining concerns me more than anything else. I'm not so worried about surfaces (chips, cards, etc.) as all the science I've seen indicates that that's a pretty rare way for this disease to transmit, and micro-droplets in the air is by far the most common.

I wouldn't go play poker, even with an N95 mask, because I would have zero fun if I were actually to never break the seal to adjust it, scratch, etc. Outdoor drinking well-spaced is probably about as safe as real sealed indoor N95 masking, but much less miserable, and little danger of absentmindedly making it much riskier when my face itched.

Indoor dining, casinos, and haircuts will probably remain at the top of my list of things to avoid until there is some resolution of this pandemic. Haircuts make my personal list only because I have discovered that they are so easy to DIY at home.

The biggest risk about outdoor well-spaced drinking is the impaired judgment that could easily happen with anyone present--myself included. I would probably drink with a group of friends at someone's home (even inside if a large enough area), but I don't see drinking at a public place anytime soon.

The only thing that is attractive about casinos to me is the opportunity to earn money. I don't need the money that badly. If I were to try to design an environment to transmit COVID at the highest possible rate, it would look a lot like a casino (especially the poker room) or a cruise ship.

+1 to all of the above (except DIY haircuts being easy). I rarely drink enough at bars to be worried about impaired judgement, and have enjoyed a beer or two on brewery patios since this all started. Wouldn't go out for a night of carousing, though, even if it were all outdoors.

And in addition to my concerns above about playing poker, I would get dehydrated really fast.

I have a professional beard trimmer - the DIY haircuts have been pretty easy. 1 on the sides, 3 on top, 2 in the borderland. There's some technique to it but not too hard when it's that short. I'm sure the back looks like **** but I don't care.

When I said DIY haircuts, I actually meant to include my wife's major contribution.

We quickly worked out a system: I cut everything from the front of my ears forward and she cuts the rest. A crucial part of our system is that I never audibly criticize her handiwork. The easiest way for me to accomplish this is by never looking at the back of my head. If it feels "normal" when I wash my hair and she's happy with the way it looks, I'm good with it.

Lolllllllllll, I feel you so much on this.

Thankfully my wife has learned how to cut hair really well. Might not ever go back to a barber.

How do we feel about the dentist? Would you cancel normal cleanups and only go in the event of toothaches/etc?

That's been my plan.

I haven't been to a barber in years. My wife does it for me every two weeks. Just slap on the shortest guide and go to town.


Also, at first I thought this meant you either went to a salon or had someone come by.

I get all my dental work for free, but I still cancelled my cleaning appointment this month. I'm thinking sometime next year.

Also was my plan. Not according to plan, I chipped a tooth so I kept my regular appt. Had to go again to fix that plus repair an old filling.

Now I'm back to my original plan. I'll keep rescheduling future appts until the pandemic is resolved or I have something else happen.

FWIW the appts seemed to take plenty of additional precautions, but you never know if enough is enough. I'd prefer to err on the side of pulmonary health over extra dental preventive screenings.

The dentist is something I am seriously considering doing shortly. I've had one private haircut since March, and last had my teeth cleaned in Jan I think. Don't want to go too long.

While attending a somewhat boozy socially distanced outdoor barbecue at my brothers, we discovered that my sister in law is also pretty damn good at cutting hair. At least that's what I'm told, I also adopted the approach of 'not looking at the back of my head'. Feels safer. In any case, I too may never give a barber my money ever again.

If you don't normally have problems you are probably good. I know several people who only go to the dentist once every 5 years and never need any work done. They also don't drink soda or eat snacks, and if I had to guess don't sleep with their mouth open.

New scientific article finds that Tokyo has 46.8% antibodies, no lockdown, low death rate, and big increase in immunity during summer: "Seroprevalence increased from 5.8% to 46.8% over the course of the summer."

'Conclusions and relevance: Covid 19 infection may have spread widely across the general population of Tokyo despite the very low fatality rate. Given the temporal correlation btw the rise in seropositivity and the decrease in reported Covid cases that occurred without a shut-down, herd immunity may be implicated.'

Dynamic Change of Covid-19 Seroprevalence....
Medrxiv.org

Went to the dentist for first time since COVID a few weeks back - felt pretty safe

- Only one person in waiting room at a time, otherwise, have to wait outside/be texted by front desk to come in
- Wear a mask at all times obv
- Temperature check and sanitize hands at front desk
- Rinse with mouthwash before appt (not sure what good that does if you HAVE COVID)
- All hygenists/dentists are wearing N95s/KN95s and face shields, and wearing gloves
- All doors open, all windows open, a couple of air purifiers in room
- One person at a time in hallway

They used to book 6 months out since they decided to keep the practice small and were extremely popular - now booking out 3 months. In b4 some idiot says "take care of your teeth and you don't have to go at all"...

I pushed my last one off until some time in Oct, but unsure if I will go or not. If I did go, it would be more for their benefit than mine, but my charitable nature has been WANING lately.