Conoravirus ...

[Ajax]

Well, the rumor mill is in overdrive here.

Apparently the reason for keeping us all coming in, is to prevent the gov't from shit-canning all of us. Our management is hyper-reporting every little thing we do in order to justify billing the gov't.
It's true that several people here still think this is all hype but some of the mangement is just trying to keep people employed and paid.

Looking at the parking lot, I'd say at least 1/3 of our staff is not here today but I can't tell if it's because of physical distancing or simply because "it's Friday."

[LarryHoward]

Well, the rumor mill is in overdrive here.

Apparently the reason for keeping us all coming in, is to prevent the gov't from shit-canning all of us. Our management is hyper-reporting every little thing we do in order to justify billing the gov't.
It's true that several people here still think this is all hype but some of the mangement is just trying to keep people employed and paid.

Looking at the parking lot, I'd say at least 1/3 of our staff is not here today but I can't tell if it's because of physical distancing or simply because "it's Friday."

I suspect there is a lot of "managers are trying to protect your jobs and keep you paycheck coming." Not unusual for a government customer to look at emergency staffing levels and think "well, staffing went down by X/X during the crisis and things stayed running. Why do I need to pay for all of these "extra" people?" What they generally need help understanding is just what upgrades and maintenance tasks didn't happen during the short staffing period and what sometimes heroic saves happen during that time. We have also seen signs at Pax that DoD is cutting the budget for personnel in the 2021 budget to free up resources for stuff and that will trickle down to the contract managers as "cut your contractor workforce". At a recent Small Business Forum at Pax, they came out and suggested "butts on seats" businesses should look at transition to building stuff. My response is "stay out of my space. It's tough enough already."

[Ajax]

Yup, you nailed it.

Our customer will ask why we need all these people. Well, all site visits have been halted and most in-house development is on hold...because YOU (gov't) aren't at work to approve our decisions.
We already had a large drawdown in personnel at the last contract renewal. We laid off over 30 people and we're not that large to begin with.

[Chris Chesley]

We have accounts receivable that don't seem to be getting paid. Next week's payroll is the last 'full' paycheck our folks will receive if that doesn't change. After that, we go to half time / half pay for a month and then, I guess we're 'done'. Between May and September we get over half of our annual revenue. Assuming half of them pay, we'll survive another 6 months. But then what?

[Ajax]

Well that certainly sucks.

If we exercise some discipline, we should be on the back side of this well before 6 months. You know, I really hoped that we as a country could exhibit some restraint without being forced by an authoritarian government like China's but apparently we're all selfish children.

[Jamie]

China numbers are looking more and more like statistical outliers. Numbers outside of Hubei look strange relative to Hubei. Hubei numbers themselves we can be pretty confident were never quite correct. We don't know that the China way has truly worked. We can be pretty sure that they made it worse for the rest of the world. We then compounded this with our own mistakes/stupidity.

There are still people here in Floriduh that think it's a Democratic hoax...eg my neighbor...even as he suits up in a mask and gloves. The power of the bully pulpit.

[Ajax]

<facepalm>.

[LarryHoward]

http://covid19.healthdata.org/projections

Forwarded by my sister who is a CNP in Dallas and former President of the Texas Nurse Practitioner's Association. Apparently commissioned by UW to help project Washington state resource needs and expanded to the rest of the country. I do now know the veracity of the modeling and underlying data but the output is sobering.

[Ajax]

http://covid19.healthdata.org/projections

Forwarded by my sister who is a CNP in Dallas and former President of the Texas Nurse Practitioner's Association. Apparently commissioned by UW to help project Washington state resource needs and expanded to the rest of the country. I do now know the veracity of the modeling and underlying data but the output is sobering.

For the nation, this looks terrible. For Maryland...wow. I hope we are so fortunate.

[kdh]

My understanding is that, unfortunately, we'll never "be on the back side of this," but rather will be living with it essentially forever.

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/03/how-will-coronavirus-end/608719/

[Ajax]

My understanding is that, unfortunately, we'll never "be on the back side of this," but rather will be living with it essentially forever.

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/03/how-will-coronavirus-end/608719/

Well, there's hope of a vaccine...

[Benno von Humpback]

My understanding is that, unfortunately, we'll never "be on the back side of this," but rather will be living with it essentially forever.

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/03/how-will-coronavirus-end/608719/

Well, there's hope of a vaccine...

There are also treatments that have shown promise in open trials. It's likely something will work, at least to some degree. More importantly, herd immunity will develop.

[kdh]

My understanding is that, unfortunately, we'll never "be on the back side of this," but rather will be living with it essentially forever.

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/03/how-will-coronavirus-end/608719/

Well, there's hope of a vaccine...

There are also treatments that have shown promise in open trials. It's likely something will work, at least to some degree. More importantly, herd immunity will develop.

A treatment that significantly reduced hospitalizations, especially the need for intensive care, would be enough. We could just let people get infected and wait for herd immunity to kick in, which is essentially what we do with flu viruses. I read that 50% of us, side of the barn, would need to get infected for herd immunity to be significant. The guess is that each of us is immune for 3 years having been infected.

We know so little.

[Benno von Humpback]

A little inside info and candid wisdom. Francis Collins interviews Tony Fauci for NIH employees. They’re on YouTube, but don’t spread them around.

http://youtu.be/v3o580tRV1Y

https://youtu.be/_pVxD0-M6_8

[Slick470]

A little inside info and candid wisdom. Francis Collins interviews Tony Fauci for NIH employees. They’re on YouTube, but don’t spread them around.

http://youtu.be/v3o580tRV1Y

https://youtu.be/_pVxD0-M6_8

Thanks for posting. was part 1 top secret?

[Olaf Hart]

A little inside info and candid wisdom. Francis Collins interviews Tony Fauci for NIH employees. They’re on YouTube, but don’t spread them around.

http://youtu.be/v3o580tRV1Y

https://youtu.be/_pVxD0-M6_8

Thank you for those, having been in the room for a number of outbreaks in the past, it was reassuring to see the quality of your public health leadership.

[Benno von Humpback]

A little inside info and candid wisdom. Francis Collins interviews Tony Fauci for NIH employees. They’re on YouTube, but don’t spread them around.

http://youtu.be/v3o580tRV1Y

https://youtu.be/_pVxD0-M6_8

Thanks for posting. was part 1 top secret?

It was 10 min about what Tony’s life is like these days. Francis’s cat was also featured.

[Benno von Humpback]

A little inside info and candid wisdom. Francis Collins interviews Tony Fauci for NIH employees. They’re on YouTube, but don’t spread them around.

http://youtu.be/v3o580tRV1Y

https://youtu.be/_pVxD0-M6_8

Thank you for those, having been in the room for a number of outbreaks in the past, it was reassuring to see the quality of your public health leadership.

Yes, reassuring, as long as anyone in power is listening. I consulted on Tony’s vasculitis patients back in the 90s and worked with him on counterterrorism stuff post 9/11. He is a national treasure.

[kdh]

You Bethesda types are so secretive.

[Benno von Humpback]

You Bethesda types are so secretive.

Have to maintain the mystique.

[Slick470]

A little inside info and candid wisdom. Francis Collins interviews Tony Fauci for NIH employees. They’re on YouTube, but don’t spread them around.

http://youtu.be/v3o580tRV1Y

https://youtu.be/_pVxD0-M6_8

Thanks for posting. was part 1 top secret?

It was 10 min about what Tony’s life is like these days. Francis’s cat was also featured.

gotcha, we got to see the cat a bit toward the end of part 3. A bit of telework comic relief is always appreciated.

[Jamie]

Everyone is a bit distracted these days. We have possibly a readiness issue with our Pacific fleet due to corona. I wonder if China's going to take a shot at Taiwan?

[Benno von Humpback]

Everyone is a bit distracted these days. We have possibly a readiness issue with our Pacific fleet due to corona. I wonder if China's going to take a shot at Taiwan?

Someone somewhere was saying, all we need is a geopolitical crisis to box the trifecta

[LarryHoward]

Everyone is a bit distracted these days. We have possibly a readiness issue with our Pacific fleet due to corona. I wonder if China's going to take a shot at Taiwan?

Someone somewhere was saying, all we need is a geopolitical crisis to box the trifecta

We are certainly sending messages of weakness right now. Properly, there is a lot of focus on internal pandemic crises but this administration does not have the credibility to mobilize the country right now. Like him or not, Rumsfeld once said “You fight a war with the Army you have, not the Army you want.” or words to the effect. If China sees “the Army we have” as weak and poorly led, it could be ugly. Or, given the lack of concern in the rest of the Pacific on China’s 9 dashed line strategy, we could find ourselves with few options.

The military is always a Petri dish for infectious disease. Close quarters, a medical system set up for either routine care of healthy people or dealing with severe trauma. One reason why flu vaccines and the like are mandatory and the military is sometimes given higher risk vaccines than the general public such as those of us ordered to take the H1N1 vaccine in 1976 despite the risks of Gillian-Barre and other complications.

[Benno von Humpback]

Everyone is a bit distracted these days. We have possibly a readiness issue with our Pacific fleet due to corona. I wonder if China's going to take a shot at Taiwan?

Someone somewhere was saying, all we need is a geopolitical crisis to box the trifecta

We are certainly sending messages of weakness right now. Properly, there is a lot of focus on internal pandemic crises but this administration does not have the credibility to mobilize the country right now. Like him or not, Rumsfeld once said “You fight a war with the Army you have, not the Army you want.” or words to the effect. If China sees “the Army we have” as weak and poorly led, it could be ugly. Or, given the lack of concern in the rest of the Pacific on China’s 9 dashed line strategy, we could find ourselves with few options.

The upside is that any adverse event the administration is unable or unwilling to deal with is instantly minimized or spun positive. We'll just give up Taiwan for strategic reasons having to do with 13-dimensional chess.

[Benno von Humpback]

The military is always a Petri dish for infectious disease. Close quarters, a medical system set up for either routine care of healthy people or dealing with severe trauma. One reason why flu vaccines and the like are mandatory and the military is sometimes given higher risk vaccines than the general public such as those of us ordered to take the H1N1 vaccine in 1976 despite the risks of Gillian-Barre and other complications.

Or pyridostigmine in Desert Storm.

[Olaf Hart]

Everyone is a bit distracted these days. We have possibly a readiness issue with our Pacific fleet due to corona. I wonder if China's going to take a shot at Taiwan?

Someone somewhere was saying, all we need is a geopolitical crisis to box the trifecta

We are certainly sending messages of weakness right now. Properly, there is a lot of focus on internal pandemic crises but this administration does not have the credibility to mobilize the country right now. Like him or not, Rumsfeld once said “You fight a war with the Army you have, not the Army you want.” or words to the effect. If China sees “the Army we have” as weak and poorly led, it could be ugly. Or, given the lack of concern in the rest of the Pacific on China’s 9 dashed line strategy, we could find ourselves with few options.

The military is always a Petri dish for infectious disease. Close quarters, a medical system set up for either routine care of healthy people or dealing with severe trauma. One reason why flu vaccines and the like are mandatory and the military is sometimes given higher risk vaccines than the general public such as those of us ordered to take the H1N1 vaccine in 1976 despite the risks of Gillian-Barre and other complications.

I have a friend who is the commander of our reserve army medical corps, he says the only doctors the army needs are sports physicians and venereologists....

[BeauV]

There is a great article from The Atlantic about the various options for when this pandemic will or will not be over. Worth a read HERE.

[Anomaly]

On the lighter side: the French chick informed me today that we had 10 liters of olive oil and 10 liters of the local bulk red wine. She's worried we don't have enough olive oil.

[Benno von Humpback]

On the lighter side: the French chick informed me today that we had 10 liters of olive oil and 10 liters of the local bulk red wine. She's worried we don't have enough olive oil.

Depends on what you use it for, I guess.