Coronavirus Chat Zone

nitsua60

00:14

@LShaver It took about a month from signing to first direct deposits when Bush did it on 2008, IIRC.

@AndrasDeak (It's possible that someone dropped a link to this room in the mod-room.)

KorvinStarmast

01:06

@nitsua60 It is also possible that about four of my light-hearted posts (rejoinder to Yuuki in re beer was one of them, kids playing with boxes was another) were removed from this chat for no good reason, and yet the owners keep the political discussion on screen. Not well done.

NautArch

01:21

@KorvinStarmast you got a link to that timeline?

Ben

Morning all

In case it hasn't been posted COVID-19 Numbers in Aus: health.gov.au/news/health-alerts/…

NautArch

@Ben o/

Ben

It's hard to keep a level head about all of this these days... Social media has blown the whole thing completely out of whack.

I'm even getting sick of the memes :/

"of"... "off"... maybe both...

NautArch

This is your chance. This is your time. Get off social media.

Ben

I have been ignoring it for the past 2 weeks. Unfortunately I can't avoid it entirely; it's how my friends like to communicate with me

Particularly my GF, with her 2 boys. They have been feeling unwell lately, and the boys are staying home from school to avoid mass contact with others. So they've been pent up a bit and I have been trying to keep them calm. Lol

NautArch

01:38

@Ben teach them the ways of Signal

BESW

@Ben What kind of social media do you use? Aggressively curating my social media experience has been crucial to what little mental health I'm clinging to.

It's okay to use the mute and block tools available to you; even though they aren't perfect they can help mitigate the experience. I regularly hit the 200-muted-keywords cap on Twitter.

Ben

Just facebook; and even that is limited to primarily humour pages.

BESW

And I choose who I'm following based on having a very clear, explicit mission statement for why I'm on a given social media platform, and pruning out everything that's not actively supporting that purpose.

Ben

I'll have to probably tell them to do the same - cut out the fat on social media

KorvinStarmast

02:38

@NautArch yeah, here is where I noticed stuff missing, but as I said in the other chat, temporary annoyance, I am over it.

Andras Deak

03:05

@nitsua60 inconveniently traditional explanation ;)

skullpatrol

03:37

Oregon Police Remind Residents: Don't Call 911 If You Run Out Of Toilet Paper

Ben

Wow

Jolenealaska

04:08

nytimes.com/2020/03/16/us/…

skullpatrol

04:31

U.S. GUN STORE OWNERS SAY ASIAN CUSTOMERS ARE BUYING WEAPONS OVER CORONAVIRUS BACKLASH FEARS

Don't forget what happened in Texas to the turban wearing gas station attendant after 911.

skullpatrol

04:51

Murder of Balbir Singh Sodhi

Balbir Singh Sodhi (1949 – September 15, 2001), a Sikh-American gas station owner in Mesa, Arizona, was murdered in a hate crime in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. This was the first of several cases across the United States that were reported to the police as supposed acts of retaliation for the attacks. Balbir Singh Sodhi, who wore a beard and a turban in accordance with his Sikh faith, was profiled as an Arab Muslim and murdered by 42-year-old Frank Silva Roque, a Boeing aircraft mechanic at a local repair facility who held a criminal record for an attempted robbery in California...

pardon my "frank/stark" presentation :(

Jolenealaska

Excellent educational video about the basic math of pandemics:

What This Chart Actually Means for COVID-19

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It's why I am home tonight.

Jolenealaska

05:20

So far there are only 4 confirmed cases in all of Alaska.

But I'm on immune-compromising drugs, and I know from experience that when I get sick, I get really sick.

So I would take up more than my fair share of needed health assets if I got sick.

skullpatrol

Wow!!!

are you diabetic?

Jolenealaska

05:53

@skullpatrol No. I have MS and am on drugs to treat that. MS is an autoimmune disease.

skullpatrol

I see.

Jolenealaska

So the drugs I am on specifically mess with my immune system.

I have been hospitalized in the past for infections of unknown etiology.

skullpatrol

sounds like a good reason to go into complete isolation

Jolenealaska

yup

skullpatrol

"We" will always be here for you pal :-)

Jolenealaska

05:57

That's alright. I'm an internet nerd. I've been training for this, like, forever.

skullpatrol

coolio

skullpatrol

06:17

Tuesday 17th March Updates

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skullpatrol

06:40

"No exist strategy" means the year 2020 is going to change our view of the world forever.

kviiri

@nitsua60 Woot!

V2Blast

<3

Jolenealaska

07:08

@skullpatrol Subscribed. If he keeps that up, I appreciate his end-of-day recap.

kviiri

07:30

I always wondered how they make those "weakened virus" populations for vaccines, turns out the basic process is relatively simple: they "farm" the virus in a tissue culture or eg. a chicken embryo, then take a sample, and do it over and over recursively until the population is adapted to its new "host", and conversely adaptation towards humans hasn't been selected for.

Turns out it's even called "attenuated virus" in English

I wonder if hosts without an immune system would be optimal because layman's understanding of biology says that'd result in the virus being worse adapted for coping against immune systems.

skullpatrol

08:04

*exit

d'oh!

Carcer

08:14

@kviiri counterintuitively I suspect maybe not, because without an immune response there's less selection pressure on the virus and it won't have to adapt as much to thrive in the new host

kviiri

@Carcer Good point. Although I reckon it might still work the other way, because there is still a selection element (human re-sampling the virus) which favors big spread in the intermediary host tissue.

Interesting topic to discuss – as long as we remember we're just laymen :)

(don't try making your own vaccines at home kids)

Carcer

@kviiri it still seems like the adapted virus you sample will probably be able to thrive in humans

but yes, laymen.

kviiri

@Carcer That's a possibility, cases of attenuated virus vaccines being able to regain virulence are rare but they occur. (And I think most of us have experienced some mini-illness from a vaccine)

kviiri