COVID-19 - On the Ground

[Deleted User 62]

My wife was supposed to reopen her labs Monday, now they are being told that date might move back significantly.

[Deleted User 62]

It'll be interesting if there starts to be some push back to working from home. Mostly people have focused on the positives. But at some point there will be a realization that, a large chunk of square footage in my home is now dedicated to work, A large portion of my internet usage is now for work, How much am I paying for work equipment, hardware, desk, chairs, pens, etc. that used to be paid for by work.

In a town hall online meeting, the question was already asked about internet reimbursement since that's now a requirement...the administrators said that wasn't something they were prepared to do at this time. Wonder what will happen long term. It's not like commuting costs, where they can argue you choose where to live. If lots of people HAVE to work from home, what will become standard work contributions to do so. I mean, even if a company can now downsize to a smaller office building for example, are those savings going to be passed on to the employees?

Some fairly good tax write offs there.

[TDub]

That doesn't make the study any less accurate, does it?

1) Person hates CNN
2) CNN provides story of findings of scientific study
3) Person dismisses study because it was covered by CNN

This is stupid logic.

Do you believe the protests are not impacting covid case numbers?

Like I said, perhaps the increased number of people gathered together gets offset by the decreased number of folks who ventured out during the protest. Our entire downtown area was closed during our protests. We had another group of a few hundred people who basically took over a main intersection in our midtown area. The result of all of this was that the vast majority of or city shut down for several days. Businesses closed. Shoppers and bar and restaurant visits ceased. Gatherings at parks ceased. All so a few thousand people could protest. Was the net result of those few thousand people gathering more or less than the net result of the tens of thousands of people who did not do what they would have done without the protests? I don't have access to any numbers to make an educated answer. I'd say only that it likely resulted in more cases of COVID than if the entire city was shut down and there WEREN'T any protests.

You seem to be perfectly fine assuming that those big crowds in the pictures mean an increased risk of COVID while ignoring any of the other factors because it fits your "protests = bad" narrative.

So yes, the protests impacted covid case numbers. But so did the number of people who sheltered at home during the protest when they wouldn't have ahd the protests not been happening.

I believe youve confused me with someone else. Ive been on the covid is bad, we need to do somethinf about it train since the beginning.


Where have I been ok with other gatherings?

I asked a simple question. Do you believe the protests increase the chances of covid spread?

[PhDhawk]

It'll be interesting if there starts to be some push back to working from home. Mostly people have focused on the positives. But at some point there will be a realization that, a large chunk of square footage in my home is now dedicated to work, A large portion of my internet usage is now for work, How much am I paying for work equipment, hardware, desk, chairs, pens, etc. that used to be paid for by work.

In a town hall online meeting, the question was already asked about internet reimbursement since that's now a requirement...the administrators said that wasn't something they were prepared to do at this time. Wonder what will happen long term. It's not like commuting costs, where they can argue you choose where to live. If lots of people HAVE to work from home, what will become standard work contributions to do so. I mean, even if a company can now downsize to a smaller office building for example, are those savings going to be passed on to the employees?

Some fairly good tax write offs there.

Aren't the rules for a home office pretty strict though? Like, even if you work for 8 hours at your kitchen table it doesn't count if you also eat meals there? Which would make it a lot more likely for an employee to ask for money if say, he/she has to add a room/outbuilding/convert a spare bedroom, etc. in order to get said tax break.

[MICHHAWK]

Any time folks gather there is an increased risk. It’s summertime so we are going to gather. So there is going to be a risk.

That’s the way it is until it isn’t.

[PhDhawk]

Do you believe the protests are not impacting covid case numbers?

Like I said, perhaps the increased number of people gathered together gets offset by the decreased number of folks who ventured out during the protest. Our entire downtown area was closed during our protests. We had another group of a few hundred people who basically took over a main intersection in our midtown area. The result of all of this was that the vast majority of or city shut down for several days. Businesses closed. Shoppers and bar and restaurant visits ceased. Gatherings at parks ceased. All so a few thousand people could protest. Was the net result of those few thousand people gathering more or less than the net result of the tens of thousands of people who did not do what they would have done without the protests? I don't have access to any numbers to make an educated answer. I'd say only that it likely resulted in more cases of COVID than if the entire city was shut down and there WEREN'T any protests.

You seem to be perfectly fine assuming that those big crowds in the pictures mean an increased risk of COVID while ignoring any of the other factors because it fits your "protests = bad" narrative.

So yes, the protests impacted covid case numbers. But so did the number of people who sheltered at home during the protest when they wouldn't have ahd the protests not been happening.

I believe youve confused me with someone else. Ive been on the covid is bad, we need to do somethinf about it train since the beginning.


Where have I been ok with other gatherings?

I asked a simple question. Do you believe the protests increase the chances of covid spread?

Exactly. I've made it pretty clear I've been opposed to ALL protests everytime they've come up. I'd actually have more respect for someone who defended them all than I would the people trying to defend the protests they support after being opposed to the ones they didn's support. It's just hypocritical.

For sure there's A LOT of social pressure to not blame the BLM protests for contributing to the spike in cases. I think that's why you're seeing a paper published online immediately without peer-review and also then being reported on by CNN.

For comparison, I submitted a paper, two months ago, it was sent out for review on May 12, and I still haven't gotten reviews back. The pace of this just doesn't happen normally. There's clearly a desire out there to make these protests more permissible in the current pandemic.

[twocoach]

It'll be interesting if there starts to be some push back to working from home. Mostly people have focused on the positives. But at some point there will be a realization that, a large chunk of square footage in my home is now dedicated to work, A large portion of my internet usage is now for work, How much am I paying for work equipment, hardware, desk, chairs, pens, etc. that used to be paid for by work.

In a town hall online meeting, the question was already asked about internet reimbursement since that's now a requirement...the administrators said that wasn't something they were prepared to do at this time. Wonder what will happen long term. It's not like commuting costs, where they can argue you choose where to live. If lots of people HAVE to work from home, what will become standard work contributions to do so. I mean, even if a company can now downsize to a smaller office building for example, are those savings going to be passed on to the employees?

Agreed. Would my employer let me take my fancy electronic, adjustable work desk home? We arent allowed to log directly into our work network from home, instead we remote into our work PC's. Would they provide me a PC to use at home? If not, I need to upgrade my home PC. This whole single monitor thing isn't cutting it.

[Deleted User 62]

It'll be interesting if there starts to be some push back to working from home. Mostly people have focused on the positives. But at some point there will be a realization that, a large chunk of square footage in my home is now dedicated to work, A large portion of my internet usage is now for work, How much am I paying for work equipment, hardware, desk, chairs, pens, etc. that used to be paid for by work.

In a town hall online meeting, the question was already asked about internet reimbursement since that's now a requirement...the administrators said that wasn't something they were prepared to do at this time. Wonder what will happen long term. It's not like commuting costs, where they can argue you choose where to live. If lots of people HAVE to work from home, what will become standard work contributions to do so. I mean, even if a company can now downsize to a smaller office building for example, are those savings going to be passed on to the employees?

Some fairly good tax write offs there.

Aren't the rules for a home office pretty strict though? Like, even if you work for 8 hours at your kitchen table it doesn't count if you also eat meals there? Which would make it a lot more likely for an employee to ask for money if say, he/she has to add a room/outbuilding/convert a spare bedroom, etc. in order to get said tax break.

Depends on how you set up your "office". unless things were changed by the latest tax bill (DON'T GET ME STARTED ON HOW THAT FUCKING THING HAS AFFECTED THE PLANO HOUSEHOLD)….you could deduct the square footage of your dedicated "office" space on the percentage of the total footage of your home.
Who is to say that your home office shouldn't have a full bath as well as "Parking space".
How much cleaning supplies, paper, internet, phone, etc is utilized for strictly business purposes? Who could possibly know.

*** Talk to your tax person or accountant***

My best friend has a saying-"if you ain't cheatin'....you're cheatin' yourself."

[twocoach]

Like I said, perhaps the increased number of people gathered together gets offset by the decreased number of folks who ventured out during the protest. Our entire downtown area was closed during our protests. We had another group of a few hundred people who basically took over a main intersection in our midtown area. The result of all of this was that the vast majority of or city shut down for several days. Businesses closed. Shoppers and bar and restaurant visits ceased. Gatherings at parks ceased. All so a few thousand people could protest. Was the net result of those few thousand people gathering more or less than the net result of the tens of thousands of people who did not do what they would have done without the protests? I don't have access to any numbers to make an educated answer. I'd say only that it likely resulted in more cases of COVID than if the entire city was shut down and there WEREN'T any protests.

You seem to be perfectly fine assuming that those big crowds in the pictures mean an increased risk of COVID while ignoring any of the other factors because it fits your "protests = bad" narrative.

So yes, the protests impacted covid case numbers. But so did the number of people who sheltered at home during the protest when they wouldn't have ahd the protests not been happening.

I believe youve confused me with someone else. Ive been on the covid is bad, we need to do somethinf about it train since the beginning.


Where have I been ok with other gatherings?

I asked a simple question. Do you believe the protests increase the chances of covid spread?

Exactly. I've made it pretty clear I've been opposed to ALL protests everytime they've come up. I'd actually have more respect for someone who defended them all than I would the people trying to defend the protests they support after being opposed to the ones they didn's support. It's just hypocritical.

For sure there's A LOT of social pressure to not blame the BLM protests for contributing to the spike in cases. I think that's why you're seeing a paper published online immediately without peer-review and also then being reported on by CNN.

For comparison, I submitted a paper, two months ago, it was sent out for review on May 12, and I still haven't gotten reviews back. The pace of this just doesn't happen normally. There's clearly a desire out there to make these protests more permissible in the current pandemic.

More permissible? Are there still protests going on?

[TDub]

Uhhh. Yes.

[PhDhawk]

Some fairly good tax write offs there.

Aren't the rules for a home office pretty strict though? Like, even if you work for 8 hours at your kitchen table it doesn't count if you also eat meals there? Which would make it a lot more likely for an employee to ask for money if say, he/she has to add a room/outbuilding/convert a spare bedroom, etc. in order to get said tax break.

Depends on how you set up your "office". unless things were changed by the latest tax bill (DON'T GET ME STARTED ON HOW THAT FUCKING THING HAS AFFECTED THE PLANO HOUSEHOLD)….you could deduct the square footage of your dedicated "office" space on the percentage of the total footage of your home.
Who is to say that your home office shouldn't have a full bath as well as "Parking space".
How much cleaning supplies, paper, internet, phone, etc is utilized for strictly business purposes? Who could possibly know.

*** Talk to your tax person or accountant***

My best friend has a saying-"if you ain't cheatin'....you're cheatin' yourself."

I need to get a new tax person.

I remember my Dad's accountant used to say, "if we don't get audited once in a while, I'm not doing my job right."

I need to find someone with that mentality.

[PhDhawk]

I believe youve confused me with someone else. Ive been on the covid is bad, we need to do somethinf about it train since the beginning.


Where have I been ok with other gatherings?

I asked a simple question. Do you believe the protests increase the chances of covid spread?

Exactly. I've made it pretty clear I've been opposed to ALL protests everytime they've come up. I'd actually have more respect for someone who defended them all than I would the people trying to defend the protests they support after being opposed to the ones they didn's support. It's just hypocritical.

For sure there's A LOT of social pressure to not blame the BLM protests for contributing to the spike in cases. I think that's why you're seeing a paper published online immediately without peer-review and also then being reported on by CNN.

For comparison, I submitted a paper, two months ago, it was sent out for review on May 12, and I still haven't gotten reviews back. The pace of this just doesn't happen normally. There's clearly a desire out there to make these protests more permissible in the current pandemic.

More permissible? Are there still protests going on?

If they're not going on in Omaha, then I guess not.

[twocoach]

Exactly. I've made it pretty clear I've been opposed to ALL protests everytime they've come up. I'd actually have more respect for someone who defended them all than I would the people trying to defend the protests they support after being opposed to the ones they didn's support. It's just hypocritical.

For sure there's A LOT of social pressure to not blame the BLM protests for contributing to the spike in cases. I think that's why you're seeing a paper published online immediately without peer-review and also then being reported on by CNN.

For comparison, I submitted a paper, two months ago, it was sent out for review on May 12, and I still haven't gotten reviews back. The pace of this just doesn't happen normally. There's clearly a desire out there to make these protests more permissible in the current pandemic.

More permissible? Are there still protests going on?

If they're not going on in Omaha, then I guess not.

If you have a moment between smart-ass responses, that'd be great. I enjoy reading your actual adult responses.

I haven't been watching any national TV lately; my kids and I have a project going on. I just haven't seen that protests were still going so your comment stood out to me.

[zsn]

I suppose I work for a great company. They let us take our monitor and chair. They also gave us a stipend/reimbursement towards a printer and supplies.

We have been told to expect to work from home for the rest of the year

[twocoach]

Some fairly good tax write offs there.

Aren't the rules for a home office pretty strict though? Like, even if you work for 8 hours at your kitchen table it doesn't count if you also eat meals there? Which would make it a lot more likely for an employee to ask for money if say, he/she has to add a room/outbuilding/convert a spare bedroom, etc. in order to get said tax break.

Depends on how you set up your "office". unless things were changed by the latest tax bill (DON'T GET ME STARTED ON HOW THAT FUCKING THING HAS AFFECTED THE PLANO HOUSEHOLD)….you could deduct the square footage of your dedicated "office" space on the percentage of the total footage of your home.
Who is to say that your home office shouldn't have a full bath as well as "Parking space".
How much cleaning supplies, paper, internet, phone, etc is utilized for strictly business purposes? Who could possibly know.

*** Talk to your tax person or accountant***

My best friend has a saying-"if you ain't cheatin'....you're cheatin' yourself."

We have a dedicated office in the house but my wife is getting sick of working at the breakfast bar since I moved in here. If it looks like I am going to be WAH for a long time, I may need to carve out some space in my basement to put in a desk and move my PC down there. If I could get my employer to provide the desk, chair and PC equipment, that would be optimal. Maybe they'd spring for whatever it costs them to build out a new work PC and I put it towards building my own PC to remote in. I havent built a PC in a few years, that would be fun.

And yeah, Betty the Tax Lady keeps us up to speed on our tax options since my wife is an independent contractor who works from our house for a percentage of her income.

[PhDhawk]

More permissible? Are there still protests going on?

If they're not going on in Omaha, then I guess not.

If you have a moment between smart-ass responses, that'd be great. I enjoy reading your actual adult responses.

I haven't been watching any national TV lately; my kids and I have a project going on. I just haven't seen that protests were still going so your comment stood out to me.

Well, I think it's pretty irresponsible to report on a study that hasn't gone through peer-review, I don't think that's something CNN would normally do.

Not to go full lobster, but I think there's a ton of pressure for media outlets like CNN to make sure they appear to support BLM as much as possible. The worst thing that could happen to their bottom line would be to be labelled as racist. Clearly, Fox News is under different pressures, but probably results in at least as many examples of irresponsible journalism, as has been already made clear in earlier in this thread.

[HouseDivided]

Any time folks gather there is an increased risk. It’s summertime so we are going to gather. So there is going to be a risk.

That’s the way it is until it isn’t.

I thought this was a pretty measured, logical examination of the numbers. There is a difference between testing positive and being ill; there is a difference between being mildly symptomatic and gravely ill; there is a difference between a person younger than 60 being ill and one over 60 being ill.

https://currently.att.yahoo.com/att/ins ... MbUDTTTfV1

[japhy]

I just got back from the Empire. The big LED sign at the edge of town that says, "VIRUS IS HERE" is still up. The streets are pretty quiet with the exception of the grocery and the liquor store. Those are my next door neighbors and I am getting to know the Owners of both businesses fairly well. Every time I come out I bring a slab of Bryant's ribs and a bottle of Sweet Heat sauce for the owners and one for the folks who run the charitable thrift store across the street from me. If you want to make friends with the locals, KC BBQ is a great icebreaker. For perspective we are talking about a county of 5,000 people spread over 3100 sq miles of high alpine desert and mountains. The town holds half of that population and my neighbor is the only grocery in the county and the liquor store is the best stocked one in the county. Everyone depends on these two places and their traffic shows it.

The powers structure in the county is very interesting. The County commission is primarily older white men, they are mostly ranchers. They are based in a much smaller ( 1/10th our population) town 25 miles to the north. The town board of trustees is primarily older hispanic women. The women took the town over back in the 1970's after Cesar Chavez visited and they started a program they called "Su Voto Cuenta!". They realized the obvious, if hispanics were 85% of the population, they should hold at least that much of the power in the town and would if everyone voted. There is a stark contrast between the directions the two groups are taking right now. The county commissioners are pushing for all businesses to be open and ready for tourists and harvests and they do not want masks so as not to scare off the tourists. The town has a strict mask in public ordinance and put the sign at the edge of town to let everyone know they are serious. When there are multiple positive tests at a potato warehouse they shut the place down and send everyone home until they can get an idea of how bad the situation is.

I get my covid updates from the County Coroner who is a neighbor as well, he owns a building next to one of mine and we talk regularly when I am out there. And the regional charity folks are a great resource because they had to shut down their thrift store and now primarily bring food to families who are quarantined because someone in the household has tested positive. Right now they tell me they are delivering food to about 10% of the town. The coroner says he has no idea how many are sick because the county health department head resigned and left town last month.

Last week a woman in her 50's was walking across the street and just dropped dead in the middle of main street. She had been in the liquor store 2 days earlier and talked to owner, was in good spirits and no signs of being sick. The coroner says she died of a stroke due to clotting from covid. The liquor store and grocery are being even more tough with their mask rule now. If you want your 12 pack of Keystone Light, you wear a mask. You don't like that? Get the fuck out of here and drive the 20 miles to the next liquor store. We don't need your bullshit right now.

Several hundred migrant workers are due in town in a few weeks to harvest the spinach and then a few weeks later there will be several hundred more to pick the lettuce and then in another month the same amount will come through for the potato harvest. A revolving door of migrant labor that is the only way the crops will get transformed from plants in the ground to the cash that feeds the whole region.

I talked to a school teacher I know there and he says that when classes went to online in March less than half the students had internet or computers in the home. The school had to try to make computers available and then figure out how to get internet access. He told me only about 10% of his class logged in to the classes. He has no idea what the next semester is going to bring because the principal still has no idea if the will be holding classes online or in person and what accommodations will need to be made if in person is chosen. He said he can't even start a class outline until that decision is made. By now he would usually have the whole next semester planned.

So if you just look at the numbers, no big deal. In the last 2 weeks only 2 people died in town. One was a 90 year old rancher who passed in his sleep and the other was a 50 year old woman who dropped dead in the middle of the street in the middle of the day in front of the two busiest businesses in a 20 miles radius. Everyone in town was acquainted in some way with both people, so these weren't just anonymous statistics, this is personal. From the people I talk to I would guess maybe 50% think the town has overreacted, but even the septics seem to be resolved that there rules that must be followed for public safety. You can't drive down main street shitface drunk or you might accidentally run over someone's kid. You can't go into the grocery without a mask or you might accidentally kill someone's mom.

I am working on a piece of art that is going to be installed in the front window of our gallery. The title is "todos dieron also, algunas dieron todo". It incorporates an image of the virus sign at the edge of town with a storm over the Sangre De Cristo Mts.

[pdub]

[ousdahl]