What Does A Quarantine Due To Coronavirus Mean For Truckers?

I'm telling ya......this is truly sad. Seriously, how shameless is our media? I mean just so blatantly shameless. Look at this picture. They put two farmers in the middle of a field using a scarf and bandana as a mask. Totally staged. If they're using scarves or bandanas it's to keep from breathing dust, unless their lettuce crop has coronavirus. Give me a break.

My friend, bless her heart, woke up in the middle of the night and was sweating a little. She got up to check her temperature just in case. She was perfectly fine. Truly sad the grief we're going through. Heaven forbid my friend had actually coughed or sneezed. She probably would've died from an anxiety attack before she could rush herself to the hospital over nothing.

It really hit me today just how appalling it is that they never talk much about the demographics. How long has this been going on, and not until today have I heard that children were almost completely unaffected by this, as are the overwhelming majority of healthy people at any age. They can't say for sure if even one child has died from this virus worldwide, though two children who died tested positive for it but may have had other issues.

They simply won't tell us anything unless it will cause fear and panic. It still seems to me that it's nothing but self-serving media and self-serving politicians generating a crisis. Until I see facts that demonstrate otherwise I will continue to believe that's what this is. The folks who had mentioned the parallel with the Y2K fiasco I think are right on. This seems to be nothing more than a massive amount of self-serving fearmongering by the media and politicians.

Why are the hospitals overrun? Maybe because they have everyone convinced they're going to die. That might do it, don't you think? In the same respect, banks can't handle a run on money, either. They're not set up for it. They're set up to handle a certain percentage of people depositing, while a certain percentage of people withdraw. If they started talking about banks failing on the news every day they would create a panic that would lead to a run on the banks, which would in fact cause them to fail or require bailouts from the Government. A self-fulfilling prophecy.

In the same respect, banks can't handle a run on money, either. They're not set up for it. They're set up to handle a certain percentage of people depositing, while a certain percentage of people withdraw. If they started talking about banks failing on the news every day they would create a panic that would lead to a run on the banks, which would in fact cause them to fail or require bailouts from the Government. A self-fulfilling prophecy.

Interesting perception.

Friend of mine went to write a check to himself from his BOA account for $4K (this was a little over a week ago). They told him they would require A WEEKS NOTICE to cash a check that large.

BANK OF AMERICA - a WEEKS NOTICE to withdraw a few thou OF YOUR OWN $$ on deposit?

I think they're doing this intentionally - to discourage people from making large withdrawals (trying to head off a run of people pulling large sums - not necessarily emptying their accounts). But I cashed a $2,500 check, from a client against my account at TD last week, they didn't say a word.

I was going to pull $4K myself - but I have $4K in cash in the gun vault at all times anyways. SHTF FOR REAL - paper $$ will be worthless anyways - unless you run out of toilet paper (though I prefer huggies baby wipes myself).

Precious metals, firearms/ammo, gasoline/diesel, antibiotics/pain-meds (and even illicit narcotics) - will all be "coin of the realm", as well as non-perishable foodstuffs.

Again - far from panicking. As things get WEIRDER AND WEIRDER down here even.

I check the booking page for my local jail every morning (don't ask - looking for familiar faces). Average bookings for Broward County Jail (under normal circumstances) - 150-180 a day. The last week - 25-30 MAX.

I get the logic. From friends who have friends in BCJ right now - there is no outbreak of COVID. But start introducing 150 ppl a day into genpop in a closed environment - and if even 5-10 of those people (daily) are carriers - you have a HUGE PROBLEM on your hands. Deputy I know DENIED they've been instructed to "use discretion", but I have it from a friends wife who works at the Medical Examiners office that they HAVE.

Meanwhile - Fort Lauderdale has gone on a "safer at home" program - threatening arrests - when they KNOW DAMN WELL, that the jail is NOT INTERESTED in incarcerating curfew violators.

17 arrests on 3/29 - UNHEARD OF. Most of them are domestic violence (yeah, force people to stay at home broke & bored - what'd you expect?), or misdemeanors that will get them kicked in the morning. AND ALL OF THEM ARE BEING HELD IN THE MAIN JAIL which is way smaller than the other facilities). And ALL OF YESTERDAYS ARRESTS ARE OUT ALREADY.

So yeah - threaten to arrest curfew violators - gimme a break...

Meanwhile - DJT floats the notion of a tri-state quarantine - and Cuomo says that's "a declaration of war". So we're going to WAR AGAINST NY? Can I ENLIST? Send in the BOMBERS DONNIE (NYC - leave Bretts place alone - LOL).

We are reaching a tipping point in the "mob insanity" - and it will get worse as the displaced/unemployed run out of what little $$'s they have stashed. It's one thing to not be able to FIND a roll of TP - and another to NOT BE ABLE TO AFFORD IT.

Also (the latest insanity) - "illegal alien advocacy groups", are calling for ILLEGALS to get their $1,200 checks too - ALL 11 MILLION OF THEM (that's 1.32 TRILLION $$"s, for those whose calculators say 1.32e10 when you do the math).

NEVER THOUGHT I'D SEE THE DAY. But here we are...

Rick

"Now Brett, how much money do you REALLY need until you get your $1,200 check from the government? For groceries, bills, things like that. And you don't need to buy a months worth of food. The grocery store will NOT run out of food!"

WAR AGAINST NY? Can I ENLIST?

I don't follow politics at all, but even CNBC is mostly politics and virus, so I begrudgingly hear some of it. It seems NY governor Cuomo's tactic was to keep screaming about how bad NY is and how the feds aren't stepping up to help, so I think Trump suggesting a quarantine was a way of saying, "Quit blaming me and handle your business. If you make me look bad and I have to step in you're not gonna like it."

I think they're doing this intentionally - to discourage people from making large withdrawals

I'm not sure in that instance, but the banking sector knows a tidal wave of both personal and commercial bankruptcies is coming. Not only that, but God knows what their current investment situation is. If they were aggressive in good times they'll be in a mess now.

NEVER THOUGHT I'D SEE THE DAY. But here we are...

I just keep thinking the insanity will end soon, but it doesn't appear that it will.

Sweden is taking a far more relaxed approach than the rest of the world and is doing just fine:

No lockdown here: Sweden defends its more relaxed coronavirus strategy

Here is a great article that explains why the death rate of diseases seems so high when they first begin and come down drastically afterward:

Why 'Death Rates' From Coronavirus Can Be Deceiving

A few quotes from this article:

...because of the way countries monitor pandemics like the coronavirus, he says, the case fatality rate tends to decrease over time. The reason: When a new disease first shows up, testing usually focuses on severely ill people who are at high risk of dying. Later on, testing is more likely to include people with milder illness who are less likely to die.

That's what happened with West Nile virus, which appeared in the U.S. in 1999. At first, when scientists only knew of about a few dozen cases, it appeared the mortality rate was higher than 10%. But wider testing eventually found hundreds of thousands of people who'd been infected but never got sick enough to notice. Today, more than 3 million Americans have been infected and studies show that fewer than 1% become seriously ill.

early in an outbreak, testing is limited to people who are so sick they wind up in the hospital. That means the only infections that get counted are in the people most likely to die. So the denominator is missing a huge number of infected people who survive, and that makes the virus appear much more deadly than it really is.

Ultimately, it will take a different sort of test to assess how lethal coronavirus has been, Lawrence says. Most current tests only detect active infections — when the virus is still present in the body. But a different type of test — now being developed but still probably months away from wide use — can reveal whether a person has ever been infected. And that is what scientists need to know to establish the true denominator for coronavirus and to find the true case fatality rate.

In the U.S., it's likely that the case fatality rate from coronavirus will end up somewhere between 0.5% and 1%, once a broad cross-section of the population has been tested, Lawrence says.

A Note About The Flu - It's not deadly!!!

People keep saying, "Yeah, but the coronavirus is 5 - 10 times more deadly than the flu."

The flu, folks, in case you hadn't noticed, is not deadly!!! It only kills 1 out of 1,000 people, and 99.999% of the time it only kills someone who is already on their deathbed. They're clinging to life by a thread and the flu is the final blow. They say, "This person died from the flu" when in reality the person was 84 years old and had all sorts of medical problems leaving them bedridden and extremely fragile. Anything would have killed them. Sneezing too hard may have done it.

So to say something is 5 - 10 times more deadly than the flu, which is not deadly, is like saying something is 5 - 10 times heavier than a feather, which is not heavy. Think about it.

Again, I'm not being insensitive to the elderly and the medically fragile. What I'm saying is you don't lock away billions of healthy people who are not at risk and devastate the lives of hundreds of millions of people, bankrupt hundreds of thousands of businesses, and crush the global economy to protect a tiny fraction of the world's most delicate folks from an ordinary virus.

What you do is quarantine the world's most delicate folks to protect them and let the rest of us live our lives. That's what we should have done. Quarantine the nursing homes and keep the elderly safe in their homes. Keep people from panicking over nothing and the hospitals won't be overflowing with people who didn't need to be there in the first place.

Let me ask this, also. Aren't there systems in place to quarantine the nursing homes to begin with? I mean, these are very fragile people. Shouldn't systems be in place to keep nursing homes free from diseases at all times? There should be systems already in place to quarantine them at all times for their protection.

We should all be asking ourselves, "What in the world are we doing right now? Does this make any sense?"

you don't need to buy a months worth of food. The grocery store will NOT run out of food!"

That's another good point. Our banks, grocery stores, hospitals, transportation - nothing in our infrastructure is set up to handle a panic in the population. None of it. In this case, the media and politicians put everyone in a panic which overwhelmed the hospitals. Then people panicked further, overwhelming the grocery stores. One form of infrastructure after another will continue to fail if they continue to promote this panic.

Rick, a note about the banks that I just heard on CNBC:

Margin calls on mortgage lenders reached staggering and unprecedented levels...eroding their working capital and threatening their ability to continue to operate.

The banks are being devastated from every angle, but at least they're still legally allowed to operate, unlike most of the businesses who have been shut down without any recourse and will go bankrupt with no opportunity to save themselves. The government stimulus package simply won't be enough for many of the businesses who are most hurt by this to stay afloat. The debts that businesses are accumulating with no revenues coming in will wipe them out. The stimulus is a nice token gesture and it makes the politicians look like they're doing everything they can, but many businesses won't survive.

Brett thoughts on the Trump strategy:

so I think Trump suggesting a quarantine was a way of saying, "Quit blaming me and handle your business. If you make me look bad and I have to step in you're not gonna like it

.

My take, which is exactly how it unfolded, was as soon as TRUMP threatened an "enforceable" quarantine Cuomo asked, "how is that legal," and then I saw in the news a reporter screaming at Trump "what legal authority do you have to impose a quarantine?" While the Democrats and media don't realize it, the people who have questioned the legal authority for the stay at home orders are saying "exactly, what's the legal authority to tell everyone to stay at home under threat of criminal prosecution." It amazes me how Trump simply dangles the string and the media and Democrats yank on it will all their might.

And Cuomo's strategy:

It seems NY governor Cuomo's tactic was to keep screaming about how bad NY is and how the feds aren't stepping up to help

He's squandering his opportunity by screaming "you pick the 26,000 who are going to die!" I hate to be callous, but for the sake of his political future he better hope that 26,000 people die in New York.

I have copied again the link for statistical projections regarding COVID-19.

COVID 19 statistical projections

I said in my prior post, that I believed their analysis was biased in favor of inflating the panic. They have updated the graph of the deaths per day, based upon actual data. Notice the trajectory of the graph based on the actual data, compared to the future. The actual data shows a flatter Bell Curve than the projections. Yet, they have increased their estimate of total deaths through August 4. How does your number INCREASE when the actual data is less than your projections. And the trajectory of the Bell Curve for the U.S., based on the actual data, is similar to the Bell Curve for China and Italy.

I stand by my statement that after this is all said and done, that this might be a "bad flu season." Based on the latest data, I'm revising that to predict that this will not be much worse than a normal flu season.

But if I'm wrong, I'll post on this thread admitting as such.

I would think that most of the people who disagree with me hope that I'm right.

Last night my 57 yrs old mom sent me a 13 minute YouTube video of how to handle your groceries during this outbreak. The poster is supposedly a doctor in Michigan. How do you stay safe? You have somebody else do your shopping, have them leave everything in your garage, pay through some type of app so you don't interact with them and don't touch the groceries for 3 days. Moms been going crazy thinking the virus is the end of the world. I found that same article Brett quoted about the death tolls but she still doesn't believe it. I know a couple people that are hoping this panic goes on long term. They work minimum wage type jobs and are doing much better financially by not working due to the $600 extra for unemployment. Many people are excited for this stimulus money on it's way. They think it's the government being nice giving us free money. Many people fail to realize it is going to affect our tax returns next year. It will help those in a bind at this time but come tax time we'll hear people complaining their refund is smaller or they owe more in than most years.

The state gave me the option of witholding 15% from unemployment. I took it.

Last night my 57 yrs old mom sent me a 13 minute YouTube video of how to handle your groceries during this outbreak. The poster is supposedly a doctor in Michigan

They where talking about that Doctor on the local radio Friday and thankfully most people agree that is a ludicrous suggestion. Most everything I've seen about contact transfer says its unlikely, it mostly spreads by droplets.

I am all for taking precautions but let's not get any more ludicrous about it.

Looks like I will be getting less than half the stimulus check since I made touch last year and am single. My sister lives in Phoenix with her boyfriend, his sister and her boyfriend and other than my sister they all have been laid off.