Working From Home - Impacts of Coronavirus

[EEVblog]

But even in full lock down you still have something like 40% of the workforce still out there and deployed in essential services.
When you are locked down at home it seems like everyone else is locked down too, but they aren't.

Well it was more hypothetical than realistic, although I'm sure they could have locked down a lot more people than they did and with the benefit of hindsight it would have been much better than dragging it out.

They could have, but it wouldn't have lasted more than a week before the supply chains ground to a halt and people start starving, not to mention other services.
People underestimate what resources and manpower is required to keep society feed and functioning. They couldn't have locked down much more in terms of percentage of working population.

[PlainName]

The purpose of the lockdown is/was to enforce distancing. There is no need to stop work, just keep a distance and wash your hands, so 40% or even 50% is a nonsense figure because it implies nothing. What keeping the other 60% at home did was show people this was very serious, and those at work kept their distance as much as they could, so the aim of the lockdown was achieved even if your figures weren't as extreme as you want.

Without the lockdown people would have been much more lax (in fact, as shown here in the UK, they were and had to have the lockkdown enforced before they took the issue seriously). In Australia you were lucky you get there soon enough to make it count. You can see from other places that they were less lucky. But just because your place got away with it doesn't mean the lockdown was pointless or useless, and you can't say that you would have coped fine without it.

[GlennSprigg]

But even in full lock down you still have something like 40% of the workforce still out there and deployed in essential services.
When you are locked down at home it seems like everyone else is locked down too, but they aren't.

Well it was more hypothetical than realistic, although I'm sure they could have locked down a lot more people than they did and with the benefit of hindsight it would have been much better than dragging it out.

While politically constitutionally difficult in the US, we could have closed borders of states, counties or some arbitrary divisions early on to isolate it to those areas. Not that it matters now, it's spread all over.

Regarding your last sentence, (mainly)...
Why would it be 'difficult' constitutionally??  Can't your President 'Mandate' what is to be done, like our Prime minister? I would have assumed that there are special 'bylaws' that cover certain times like 'Wars' (and this present scenario!) that Military Law etc can be in effect!??

As to 'Boundaries', yes, in the USA it has spread all over, but please consider this!!...
Our State of Western-Australia is quite large, so apart from Interstate travel restrictions/blocks, our state is divided up (NOW!) into multiple areas, for boundary/isolation.  Now, Perth, our main City, is virtually where ALL the cases are!!  200kms South of Perth, are multiple major townships/areas like Bunbury, Bussleton, Margaret-River etc etc are in our own isolated area here in W.A. where we can not travel to the likes of Perth, and visa versa. Now we have NO infections in our 'zone', so as long as no-one crosses into our 'zone', then NO-ONE here WILL !! This must eventually govern 'our' restrictions here?

[DrG]

But even in full lock down you still have something like 40% of the workforce still out there and deployed in essential services.
When you are locked down at home it seems like everyone else is locked down too, but they aren't.

Well it was more hypothetical than realistic, although I'm sure they could have locked down a lot more people than they did and with the benefit of hindsight it would have been much better than dragging it out.

While politically constitutionally difficult in the US, we could have closed borders of states, counties or some arbitrary divisions early on to isolate it to those areas. Not that it matters now, it's spread all over.

Regarding your last sentence, (mainly)...
Why would it be 'difficult' constitutionally??  Can't your President 'Mandate' what is to be done, like our Prime minister? I would have assumed that there are special 'bylaws' that cover certain times like 'Wars' (and this present scenario!) that Military Law etc can be in effect!??

/---/

Your Liberty To Spread Your Virus Ends Just Where My Nose Begins

(with apologies https://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/10/15/liberty-fist-nose/)

 

[SiliconWizard]

Don't hold your breath waiting for a vaccine 

Decades later they are still working on magic cures for the common cold, re-badged flu, hay fever, winter morning sniffles,
(...)

Sorry for being naive maybe here, I certainly do not know all vaccines in existence. But do we actually have any working vaccine to protect effectively against any coronavirus at this point?

[cdev]

A stilbenoid polyphenol, resveratrol, which is found in a great many plants, looks to me like it might be helpful. (But it might not be, too)

People have used RESV to inhibit numerous other viruses and it does show in vitro activity against MERS and SARS.

Also, a number of medical informatics programs scanning for promising lead molecules point it out because it seems to have affinity to the spike protein of COVID-19.

 It may be a good representative of a whole new way to approach viruses.

But we don't know. (It could do nothing, or even make it worse) It needs the research community's attention.

 It did help with MERS. (related virus)

It can be aerosolized. It helps with acute lung injury caused by a standard inflammatory substance (LPS which is found in the large intestine, its a toxin made by bacteria) .

 It would be helpful if any of you are doctors, or knew doctors, if you could get them to read those links. Smart doctors will read them, not take a position first. (unless they actually know the answer, which it appears to me that nobody does)

It just seems to me like we may be ignoring a substance with great potential to help people.

[thinkfat]

It just seems to me like we may be ignoring a substance with great potential to help people.

It is of no consequence on the grand scale if the few us here ignore it. I do wonder, very much so, what drives your insistence in this being the right forum for shilling grape seed and red wine.

[cdev]

You're misunderstanding me completely. I'm sorry. As I sit here I am listening to a Senate committee hearing which is talking about the US's response to COVID-19. I know a lot about functional foods, and have since I was young. I'm trying to help.

All ideas with any merit at all should be evaluated. Especially inexpensive, easy to implement  ones.

The science is solid.

I don't know what else to say. It might help. And then again it might not.

I have no financial stake  in anything. Shilling implies selling. I have nothing I'm selling.

It just seems to me like we may be ignoring a substance with great potential to help people.

It is of no consequence on the grand scale if the few us here ignore it. I do wonder, very much so, what drives your insistence in this being the right forum for shilling grape seed and red wine.

Grapes and wine, as far as I know, even if it did help, I suspect its likely grapes and wine would not contain enough resveratrol to be that useful.  Since we all want to see people be able to return to normalcy we need to respond to this illness. Actually, we do know that RESV is helpful with some kinds of influenza. Low dose RESV may help build immunity when combined with vaccines.
Look on PubMed and you'll see its a very unique substance immunologically.

What we MAY be able to do is something like this.
Antiviral Effect of Resveratrol in Piglets Infected with Virulent Pseudorabies Virus
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6164078/

I have no idea if it would work. I am just saying that they should investigate it in the COVID-19 context. This investigation is urgently needed.

because there is a real chance that it might work and because it would be so easy to implement if it does work.

[Buriedcode]

cdev, this is like the fifth thread where you've mentioned resveratrol.  Several relating to COVID-19 but also anything relating to health. 

I understand you believe in it as a cure-all, but, if some compound/chemical/"extract" or supplement appears to help with a wide range of problems, then its probably bollocks.  I don't understand your obsession with it.  If you search the forum for "resveratrol" you'll find quite a few results, all by you (surprisingly, my post replying to yours in an earlier thread isn't there).

You link to a study on resveratrol vs a pseudorabies virus - what makes you think that virus is anything like this latest coronavirus? 

Simply stating "it might be helpful, it might not" isn't really saying anything.   Eating two cucumbers a day might help with, I dunno, arthiritis.. then again, it might not.

As I said in a previous thread, there is little evidence for any benefit to supplementation. No-one, as far as I can see, is suggesting its completely ineffective for anything, just that, I have yet to find any credible evidence for a benefit. 

I'm sure there are thousands investigating the many drugs that have already been proven to be safe, and just look at what happens when people ignore the evidence and go with what they believe in? https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/covid-19-out-of-control-science-and-bypassing-science-based-medicine/

Time and resources (and in some cases lives) were wasted because people liked the idea that there was this random drug that magically cured people, rather than follow the evidence. 

[james_s]

Regarding your last sentence, (mainly)...
Why would it be 'difficult' constitutionally??  Can't your President 'Mandate' what is to be done, like our Prime minister? I would have assumed that there are special 'bylaws' that cover certain times like 'Wars' (and this present scenario!) that Military Law etc can be in effect!??

As to 'Boundaries', yes, in the USA it has spread all over, but please consider this!!...
Our State of Western-Australia is quite large, so apart from Interstate travel restrictions/blocks, our state is divided up (NOW!) into multiple areas, for boundary/isolation.  Now, Perth, our main City, is virtually where ALL the cases are!!  200kms South of Perth, are multiple major townships/areas like Bunbury, Bussleton, Margaret-River etc etc are in our own isolated area here in W.A. where we can not travel to the likes of Perth, and visa versa. Now we have NO infections in our 'zone', so as long as no-one crosses into our 'zone', then NO-ONE here WILL !! This must eventually govern 'our' restrictions here?

The constitution includes a right to travel which prevents things like locking down state borders. The president has very little real authority, contrary to what the one we currently have in office likes to think. They cannot simply suspend the constitutional rights of citizens without doing something very extreme like declaring martial law. It's the sort of thing likely to incite an armed revolt in this country. It's not impossible, but it would be difficult and a political death sentence in the more conservative areas.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_movement_under_United_States_law

[thinkfat]

You're misunderstanding me completely. I'm sorry. As I sit here I am listening to a Senate committee hearing which is talking about the US's response to COVID-19. I know a lot about functional foods, and have since I was young. I'm trying to help. All ideas with any merit at all should be evaluated. Especially inexpensive, easy to implement  ones. The science is solid. I don't know what else to say. It might help.

It just seems to me like we may be ignoring a substance with great potential to help people.

It is of no consequence on the grand scale if the few us here ignore it. I do wonder, very much so, what drives your insistence in this being the right forum for shilling grape seed and red wine.

Grapes and wine, as far as I know, even if it did help, I suspect its likely grapes and wine would not contain enough resveratrol to be that useful.

"Did help with MERS" - the study you linked is about resveratrol being effective in vitro against the MERS-CoV. It's a bit of a stretch to say it "helped" when it was not clinically tried. The study found that  a certain dosis of the substance prolonged cell culture survival and acknowledges that no in vivo considerations have been made.

[cdev]

It seems to me likely that you arent understanding what I'm saying because you ignored what I said and instead youre trying to put words in my mouth.

-------

This is right on topic, and its new. Note that it says that more research is needed.

J Biomol Struct Dyn. 2020 Apr 29:1-16. doi: 10.1080/07391102.2020.1762743. [Epub ahead of print]

Stilbene-based Natural Compounds as Promising Drug Candidates against COVID-19.

Wahedi HM1, Ahmad S2, Abbasi SW1.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32345140

Abstract
The pandemic coronavirus disease (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) presents a great threat to public health. Currently, no potent medicine is available to treat COVID-19. Quest for new drugs especially from natural plant sources is an area of immense potential. The current study aimed to repurpose stilbenoid analogs, reported for some other biological activities, against SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and human ACE2 receptor complex for their affinity and stability using molecular dynamics simulation and binding free energy analysis based on molecular docking. Four compounds in total were probed for their binding affinity using molecular docking. All of the compounds showed good affinity (> -7 kcal/mol). However, fifty nanoseconds molecular dynamic simulation in aqueous solution revealed highly stable bound conformation of resveratrol to the viral protein: ACE2 receptor complex. Net free energy of binding using MM-PBSA also affirmed the stability of the resveratrol-protein complex.

Based on the results, we report that stilbene based compounds in general and resveratrol, in particular, can be promising anti-COVID-19 drug candidates acting through disruption of the spike protein. Our findings in this study are promising and call for further in vitro and in vivo testing of stiblenoids, especially resveratrol against the COVID-19.


KEYWORDS:
COVID-19; MM-PBSA; Molecular docking; Molecular dynamic simulations; Stilbene-based natural compounds

PMID: 32345140 DOI: 10.1080/07391102.2020.1762743

---------------------------------

There needs to be research because if it helps, it will be very useful, but it may not help, if thats the case, we need to know that too. People shouldnt try this themselves.  The research community needs to investigate it.

[nctnico]

It seems to me likely that you arent understanding what I'm saying because you ignored what I said and instead youre trying to put words in my mouth.

-------

This is right on topic, and its new. Note that it says that more research is needed.

Which means: we have no cure or anything remotely useful at all but just wanted our 15 minutes of fame. It seems the daily radically new battery invention hoax has been replaced by a daily radically new Covid-19 cure hoax.

[cdev]

Isn't it wise, if somebody is an engineer, to solve each problem by the most straightforward, simple means that exists?

"Did help with MERS" - the study you linked is about resveratrol being effective in vitro against the MERS-CoV. It's a bit of a stretch to say it "helped" when it was not clinically tried. The study found that  a certain dosis of the substance prolonged cell culture survival and acknowledges that no in vivo considerations have been made.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=resveratrol+virus  << Search to get the big picture.


That is what I am saying that we need. Testing in animals. Soon. 

The study with resveratrol, piglets and pseudorabies virus that I cited was to show you that the basic concept is sound, even with a virus that infects the brain. (COVID-19 also infects the brain, and its invasion of the CNS is most likely why people stop breathing. So that paper shows that it can and does kill this other substantially more virulent virus in the piglets' CNS. "in vivo"

 if resveratrol inhibits replication of the COVID-19 virus as its possible it will (see my previous posts) - its time to test it with animal models.

After doing a great deal of reading on the side effects of other drugs being tested, and their results so far, I think there actually is a possibility that - if it works, it may be the best alternative. Because it may help address many other symptoms of COVID-19. Sepsis, pulmonary fibrosis, various coagulopathies, it may be neuroprotective,  nobody knows if it can prevent the propagation of the coronavirus up axons to infect the brain stem. It would be easy to test. )  But it may do much more because of the situation with sepsis and cytokines and chemokines causing sudden changes in the integrityof the respiratory epithelium. Injuring the parts of the lung that do the breathing. Resveratrol helps the lungs recover quite a bit in that situation, acute lung injury and ARDS. It also helps other organs from various kinds of sepsis including polymicrobial sepsis.

There also is a way it could be
aerosolized, like n-acetyl-cysteine has been. Using beta-glucan.

A slight reformulation might make it useful in the lower respiratory tract infection, with its pneumonia.as an aerosol-  it would get the substance to where it would do the most use quickly.

Sometimes pneumonia is caused by injuries that cause a lot of damage, because when cells die they release cytokines. This is also what happens when people suffer any abdominal injury such as blunt force trauma. That causes large amount of cytokie release and the sunbequent injury can become life threatening very quickly. That kind of injury can become an emergency for similar reasons as covid-19 often does even though the cause seems completely different, it really isnt.

From what I have read, resveratrol may prevent the pneumonia devolving into acute lung injury or ARDS.
 in that kind of situation. Its possible that that is what is happening, large numbers of cells may be dying and releasing cytokines/chemokines for a similar reason, cell deaths. If that is the case, resveratrol might be a dramatic help. It may prevent blood clotting and reduce strokes, as it does elsewhere, and reduce the size of infarcts when strokes do occur, as its known to do that. It may be helpful in kawasaki disease coagulopathy in children.

But this is all speculation whether it would in COVID-19.

It MAY be both an antiviral and an immunomodulator in one. That could be a very good thing.

And then again it may not be. But it seems it has potentials that none of the other proposed therapies have, and more of a track record as far as we already know it may have use in some of its symptoms, when caused by other (biologically diverse) pathogens including viruses. Whether it would help with them is a long shot, but you can do this yourself, investigate on pubmed if various COVID-19 pathologies return any results when you add the word resveratrol. But this investigation needs to be done in animal models, not people.

And let me make it clear here, I'm not a doctor, I am just speculating here, and its a long shot because there are so many variables. But I would be lying if I didnt say that it seems as if there MAY be a path to a unique solution to this huge problem - and it just seems worth trying. If it works, and again, many IFs exist, but IF it works in its simplest form, it could be a huge help, even if it simply lowered the severity of the infection a small amount, because by starting sooner, even low dose resveratrol (which is actually a food, not a drug) might  help keep a significant number of infected people out of the hospital and ICU.

[thinkfat]

I repeat: this is the wrong place.

PS:

Wahedi HM1, Ahmad S2, Abbasi SW1.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32345140

Full text is here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07391102.2020.1762743

You must be kidding: This is not even in vitro. This is a molecular simulation study.

[cdev]

I repeat: this is the wrong place.

PS:

Wahedi HM1, Ahmad S2, Abbasi SW1.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32345140

Full text is here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07391102.2020.1762743

You must be kidding: This is not even in vitro. This is a molecular simulation study.

Can I ask you something? why are you arguing with me when I'm just suggesting we investigate this.

Why are you afraid of- having more knowledge?

[Buriedcode]

Yes, and there are a lot of them.

I repeat: this is the wrong place.

PS:

Wahedi HM1, Ahmad S2, Abbasi SW1.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32345140

Full text is here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07391102.2020.1762743

You must be kidding: This is not even in vitro. This is a molecular simulation study.

Can I ask you something? why are you arguing with me when I'm just suggesting we investigate this.

Why are you afraid of- having more knowledge?

I don't think it is a fear of "having more knowledge" but rather having discussion (and if shows promise, "research") squandered on poor solutions just because someone believes in a cure-all.  If you were some authority that had to allocate man-hours and resources researching possible treatments, you would first follow lines of inquiry that have some evidence of efficacy, regardless of personal beliefs.  They might be dead ends, but you start with what you know, eliminating them one by one until you're left with less plausible avenues.   If there was ample evidence for what you're suggesting, surely others would have picked up on it?  It's not like a brand new compound, it has been studied a fair bit.

You can't just "try anything and see what works" on a whim, because it would take forever.   I'm sure authorities aren't resistant to the idea of certain drugs being effective just because of some dogma, or "big pharma", it is almost always because there just isn't sufficient evidence to warrant further investigation.

Also, AFAIK, we are all engineers, not doctors, and whilst perhaps there are some biochemists and specialists on the forum, I doubt any are in a position or start animal testing of a compound that has shown little promise:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resveratrol
https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/resveratrol-of-mice-and-men/

[thinkfat]

Can I ask you something? why are you arguing with me when I'm just suggesting we investigate this.

Why are you afraid of- having more knowledge?

I'm arguing the "we". This is not the right audience to plead your case.

Just look at the studies you're presenting. Nobody here has the knowledge to critically appraise them. This is all far, very far from any clinical application. Many of the recent papers, especially when the subject is COVID-19 are not even peer reviewed yet and if you listen to the actual experts in the field - there's a tonne of papers being published right now by who-knows, "publish or perish" is the game. This is not "more knowledge", this is just noise, "techno-babble", to my ears.

You say you're not a doctor. You most certainly are not a virologist or molecular biologist or any applicable -ist and if you think you understand what these papers are about and what they represent in the overall landscape of covid-19 research, I believe you're fooling yourself. Would you know what a 125µM dose of resveratrol represents when applied to a cell culture (I took this from the MERS paper)? Would you know that a 1µM dose is already called "extreme"? Is this a concentration that can be achieved through medication at all? How high would you have to dose it in an aerosol? How high in a "pill"? Is this even feasible, without killing the patient?

None of this will have any relevance for medical treatment for the next couple of _years_. Yes, it's "promising", from the point of view of the research team, because it promises more funding. But that's about it.

PS: The often-cited study on the effect of Hydroxychloroquine on virus replication in a cell culture mentioned  50% inhibition with a dose of 1µM. Just to put things into perspective.

[Electro Detective]

Don't hold your breath waiting for a vaccine 

Decades later they are still working on magic cures for the common cold, re-badged flu, hay fever, winter morning sniffles,
(...)

Sorry for being naive maybe here, I certainly do not know all vaccines in existence.

But do we actually have any working vaccine to protect effectively against any coronavirus at this point?

You're far from naive mate      application for 'sorry' acceptance has been declined 



The long     and short answer is a NO, but test tube incompetents and or crooks desperate to stay in business will say YES for a colored water placebo 'trial release'
or wimp out with  'getting closer to a breakthrough..' anyway, as they have done so-o-o many times before.. which few choose to remember

to keep us hanging on, like watching a cliff hanger movie   
or a classic DJ Youtube video with a big dollar dumpster score on the bench > will it work, easy fix,
or magic smoke, sparks n flames?   

anyone with a clue about how symptoms, diseases, viri/viruses, and how the body immune system works, reacts, accepts and rejects, would know it's impossible,
and not everyone has the same physiology and tolerance to afflictions, and or drugs pumped into them to combat symptoms or ailments.

and that's aside from the shady science and pharma companies keeping the little people and gubbermint departments in the dark about ALL such matters
and or milking any situation involving the latest greatest 'hitherto unknown and UNSEEN' corona/covid badged mortality maker for all it's worth

Most drug companies originated back in the 1800s (perhaps earlier?) as street dope dealers, mickey finn muggers, and snake oil floggers
then became 'legit' with all the money and property they ripped off the hard working faith suckers over decades,
look up their 'history', that's if they haven't sent in their Wiki and Google well paid 'moderator' trolls yet, to 'censor' it up a bit, or soften the dark bits accordingly 


Any landslide or diversionary comments, silly charts and cash for comment 'science' goon bully talk to sway and confuse,
won't ever change that fact that there will be NO zip nada nein etc working vaccine for corona, camry, corolla, Hi-Lux, Swine,
Mad Cow, Fat Cow, Bird Flu, Pig Flu, Bat Flu, 'pick a Country' Flu, Hollywood Flu, Stupid Flu, (enter your fav flu here),  any time soon
 

The only current working vaccines and preventative medicine drugs are the old school boring stuff > eat well, stay healthy in body/mind and be reasonably fit,
and only indulge in pain relief poppers or booze when absolutely necessary   

and hope the bastards don't poison your community's water supply or food chain (old school 'OUTBREAK')
or stick you with a 'mandatory vaccine' the administers would not dare jab themselves with
or their family, friends and cohorts,
because that suss stuff is reserved only for clean tax payer guinea pigs,
not the filthy minded rats in human form trading as.. well you can probably guess by now

--------------------------

I think I gabbed it too much again    so getting set for the conspiracy deniers to pummel me once more,
= troll calling, baiting, off topic, chasing off new members, report, hassle the admin, ousted,
all that good stuff, for whatever it takes to suppress any boat rockers popping questions 

I'll admit they are good at it, versatile, discrete teamwork play, extremely persistent, so credit given where due 

[coppice]

Don't hold your breath waiting for a vaccine 

Decades later they are still working on magic cures for the common cold, re-badged flu, hay fever, winter morning sniffles,
(...)

Sorry for being naive maybe here, I certainly do not know all vaccines in existence. But do we actually have any working vaccine to protect effectively against any coronavirus at this point?

Nope. They were working on a SARS vaccine when SARS was infecting people. When SARS went away they stopped work, even though a mutation of SARS was highly likely to return.

Prevention may be better than cure, but cures are where the money is. That has been the history of vaccines in general.

[EEVblog]

But just because your place got away with it doesn't mean the lockdown was pointless or useless, and you can't say that you would have coped fine without it.

I have never said that, in fact I have said the opposite.
What I have said is that there is no real data to quantify how much of a difference it actually made, because (obviously) there was no control group. Again, not implying anything by that, and certainly not implying it made no difference. I'm just sick of all the people who categorically state or imply it was the sole reason behind our good results, I'm calling BS on that viewpoint, it's a contributor.

[cdev]

While we've been here this whole major drama has been playing out over IP and coronavirus. If they put one tenth of the energy into finding a cure for coronavirus as they are into all defending their turf we would have a cure by now. What are the stakes? I hghly recommend people watch the film "Fire in the Blood" - which is about the HIV epidemic and poor countries and areas like Africa, india South America. And about the worth of human lives. Also see the web page of Bill Haddad who died last week. . Its very sad because he was a great person by all accounts!

Now the debate is who gete the money from these yet to be discovered vaccines and drugs, should they be able to ask what the market will bear, or will it bear it?

There is a growing consensus in many countries, that Big Pharma should not be able to charge extortionate prices for COVID-19 drugs.

BUT- Look at the recent situation with Gilead's Hepatitis C treatment. the price was based on the cost to treat hepatitis C over a lifetime in a Western hospital.

Some people thought $1000 a pill was excessive.

[DrG]

From Clinical Research Memes https://www.facebook.com/groups/1664725823783443/permalink/2606776812911668/


A lot of people have been asking me what it's like being on the COVID wards in the hospital, so I figured I'd share what a typical day looks like for me:

6am - Wake up. Roll off of my pile of money that Big Pharma gave me. Softly weep as it doesn’t put a dent in my medical school loans

6:30am - Make breakfast, using only foods from the diet that gives me everlasting life by avoiding all fats, sugars, carbs, and proteins. For details buy my book and check out my shop.

7am - Get to work, load up my syringes with coronavirus before rounds.

8am - See my patients for the day. Administer the medications that the government tells me to. Covertly rub essential oils on the ones I want to get better.

9:30am - Call Bill Gates to check how 5G tower construction is going, hoping for more coronavirus soon. He tells me they’re delayed due to repairs on the towers used to spread the Black Plague. Curse the fact that this is the most efficient way to spread infectious diseases.

10am - One patient tells me he knows “the truth” about coronavirus. I give him a Tdap booster. He becomes autistic in front of my eyes. He’ll never conspire against me again.

11am - Tend to the secret hospital garden of St. John’s wort and ginkgo leaves that we save for rich patients and donors.

12:30pm - Pick up my briefcase of money from payroll, my gift from Pfizer for the incomprehensible profits we make off of the free influenza vaccine given every year.

1pm - Conference call with Dr. Fauci and the lab in Wuhan responsible for manufacturing viruses. Tell them my idea about how an apocalypse-style zombie virus would be a cool one to try for the next batch.

2pm - A patient starts asking me about getting rid of toxins. I ask her if she has a liver and kidneys. She tells me she knows “the truth” about Big Anatomy and that the only way to detoxify herself is to eat nothing but lemon wedges and mayonnaise for weeks. I give her a Tdap booster.

2:45pm - Help the FBI, CIA, and CDC silence the masses. Lament the fact that I can only infringe on one or two of their rights. Oh well, there’s always tomorrow.

4pm - One of my rich patients begins to crash. Laugh as I realize I’ve mismatched her spirit animal and zodiac moon sign. I switch out the Purple Amethyst above her bed for a Tiger’s Eye geode. She stabilizes. I throw some ginkgo leaves on her for good measure

6pm - Go onto YouTube and see coronavirus conspiracy videos everywhere. Curse my all powerful government for how inept they are at keeping people from spreading “the truth”

6:10pm - Go onto Amazon and see that a book about “the truth” is the #1 seller this week. Question the power of my all powerful government. Make a reminder to myself to get more Tdap boosters from the Surgeon General next time we talk.

7pm - Time to go home. Before I leave, sacrifice a goat to Dr. Fauci and say three Hippocratic Oaths.

9pm - Take a contented sigh as I snuggle under the covers made of the tinfoil hats of my enemies, realizing that my 4 years of medical school and 3 years of residency training have been put to good use today.

[jeffheath]

I think Dave had a good point when he said "there's no control group." It's impossible for me to think of how the U.S. should have handled this, when there's nothing to compare it to. The U.S. has never actually tackled a disease this dangerous before. I guess it's better to have a bunch of poor people than a bunch of dead people.

[maginnovision]

Apparently the plan here in LA County is to keep the lockdown going until August. Wife is going to lose her mind before that, I think.