Squirrel

MOD WARNING: Matt has now cleared up what he meant ... could Bauer's off field activities be a detriment to clubhouse chemistry? That's it. That's the point of discussion. The debate isn't over the specifics of those activities and Matt didn't mention those specifics in the original article, I suspect, of the potential of turning this discussion to where it went. If you think those activities won't matter and how he pitches is all that does? Then fine, stick to that. If you think it does matter? Then fine, state that he wouldn't be a good fit in the clubhouse and why the clubhouse demeanor is important to the outcome of the performance on field. People went down this political discussion hole where it is not pertinent to this baseball discussion. Go to twitter if you want to argue over those specifics. My opinion on going to twitter is 'no thank you,' but to each his/her own. Stick to the baseball here on TD. Don't dredge up the specifics of a tangent and make them the topic. Some posts have been hidden or edited in the process of getting things back on track. If this line continues, warning points will be issued.

Why would Atlanta be in the Central and not Pittsburgh? If they do this, that’s dumb, imo. If they are going to combine the two league’s divisions then Pittsburgh should stay in the Central and Atlanta in the East.

You raise a valid point. I think I mentioned this much further back in this thread. Having had a parent in a LTC facility, and knowing how things worked there, there is a context to those numbers that is missing. Not only did my Dad have a DNR order, but he also had medical directives in place not to go to great lengths to treat, and was removed from many of his medications in the last 6 months (palliative care). If he were still alive, and had come down with COVID-19, no extraordinary measures to keep him alive would have been taken. That is important context to know when we see these high numbers. But also, through experience and seeing how the inside of some of these places work, some are operated better than others, and that is not to say, the more you pay the better it is, because that isn’t necessarily how it works. Some places are just not run well, administratively, and if they are ‘for profit’ institutions, the bottom line is the priority, not the care. They often run a bare minimum of staff, because, well, cost control, and that staff isn’t always trained very well, and minor things get missed regularly that become major issues. Just from the basics of hand washing, even. How many people live within a certain area, are the rooms double or single rooms? While part of the equation is medical directives, I think there could also be a lacking of upholding the quality of daily care and sanitation. We moved my Dad from one place to another, partly because there had been tOo many administrative turn overs that too much was being missed in basic care.

Thanks for the link. I saw this posted on IG by LaTroy and couldn’t find a news article on it when I did a google search. RIP

Where were these possible divisions announced? But I’m good with any article that replays the Kepler home runs off Bauer. Good times.

My previous ‘guess’ can be thrown out the window. Here is an article that delves into it a bit further. Hospitals in the U.S. are business entities. Without elective procedures, business managers have had to cut expenses. Yep, during a pandemic, the bottom line is the bottom line. That said, hospitals hope to hire back furloughed employees, but it may be a while before people feel ‘comfortable’ going to the doctor and having things done. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52476128?fbclid=IwAR1-vkCEAIJagU6rHQ3dBEqH2HTf8kcY8akvKPYNjda5w7JhBD9VL_Eh-40

That’s what makes it a dad joke and not a mom joke

A priest, a rabbit, and a minister walk into a bar. The rabbit says, ‘I might be a typo.’

This looks promising. “Preliminary results indicate that patients who received remdesivir had a 31% faster time to recovery than those who received placebo (p<0.001). Specifically, the median time to recovery was 11 days for patients treated with remdesivir compared with 15 days for those who received placebo. Results also suggested a survival benefit, with a mortality rate of 8.0% for the group receiving remdesivir versus 11.6% for the placebo group (p=0.059).” https://www.niaid.nih.gov/news-events/nih-clinical-trial-shows-remdesivir-accelerates-recovery-advanced-covid-19?fbclid=IwAR3-cmyMZn3kkQT6qNBL4UxG3lrCx669NYLyf09dYaONg-UhdG5KBsy5Jy8 Time buys us discovery, discovery buys us hope.

I’m not exactly sure what this is about, but it’s not a union issue, at least not union induced. It sounds like some hospitals are not being used for COVID patients and their services have been cut back and employees furloughed. The nurse in this story works for Children’s Hospital and they have cut back on all their elective services, so she was furloughed. But her contract is with that hospital, so if she goes to work elsewhere, she has to leave her position with that hospital to go and fill a temporary spot in another hospital. When she does that, leaves her current job, she may not be guaranteed of a job to come back to, because she left it, I would think the union would/should ask for guarantees if employees of one hospital want to go and help elsewhere, that they would be rehired when they return. That’s what this situation sounds like to me, but I’m not sure who is the one to fix it ... hospital administration, or maybe the union can step in to renegotiate? I heard a report recently, they interviewed some nurses who went to help in NYC, and all of them said they may not have jobs to go back to and will have to find employment elsewhere if the hospitals they left won’t or aren’t able to rehire them. And I’m not sure how hospitals are hiring temporary medical staff, if it’s for so many weeks and done, or what? What the temporary contracts run. I also know that in Chicago, to ramp up, they put a call out and hired a lot of furloughed workers from other states. This was just my guess so have no idea how close I am to the correct answer.

This is so sad for me for so many reasons. Lynn Harrell was so amazing. So sad. https://heavy.com/entertainment/2020/04/lynn-harrell-dead/

Having had a parent in a nursing home, I’ll say I’m glad he doesn’t have to live through this. That said, many patients in nursing homes have directives to do nothing outstanding to prolong living. This goes beyond a dnr. We had such directives in place for my Dad. He would not have been treated for COVID-19 but kept comfortable until he passed. While you don’t want to let this spread to those most vulnerable, many are also likely not being treated per medical directives and it could one part of the equation for the high number of nursing home deaths. But yes, how they are being infected, that does bear taking a close look at and needs to be corrected.

Well, so much for the ‘herd immunity’ plan. “Take the pandemic now,” he said. “If they come out with a vaccine and you have 15% of people saying, ‘I don’t want to take it, I don’t believe in it, it’s going to cause harm’, you’re never going to get up to the level of herd immunity to really shut off the process.” https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/27/us-warning-pandemic-anti-vaxxers?fbclid=IwAR2lugL4XOXOfS581E1DCD6BZqKRJPtWmCor2iSccN9wV5GF4EsjIKQH_ac

You've posted some of the best articles, and this is by far, no exception. Thank you.

Nice article. I’m looking forward to seeing him play up north.

Time buys us discovery. Discovery buys us hope. https://www.uchicagomedicine.org/forefront/coronavirus-disease-covid-19/uchicago-medicine-doctors-see-truly-remarkable-success-using-ventilator-alternatives-to-treat-covid19?fbclid=IwAR0E2kutrW3MmUD7xpYSKpR9hC0s2Wmo2yP2HJOMLaI6dCq9D9LshXek_Rg

You seem to be ignoring a large context here. Yes, a vast majority have minor to no symptoms, but when you are talking about a 75% figure of society who could be infected (one sconnie gave) that .5% death rate results in a very high number of bodies dead. And, that rate wasn’t including deaths at home and unconfirmed cases. The sheer numbers of dead is much, much higher than the flu. The fact that none of us are immune is the problem, so is also we are contagious for longer, the rate of recovery is longer for those who get it, and for those who get it, it is largely more severe. I agree that allowing a certain portion of the population to self-immunize isn’t a bad approach, and I’ve said it earlier in these threads, but that requires a medical system we do not have, and organization for our population we do not have. We also have a much larger population here. We aren’t Sweden. And we still aren’t sure of a full immunity ... could people get it again or a mutated version ... still unknown for certain. That really is an apples to oranges comparison. Had we acted immediately, in January, we could have done this in a much more controlled manner, but we didn’t and are left with a much harsher reality as a result of lack of leadership. Again, you are not doing all the math here and comparing .5% to .1% and saying it’s not so different, yet it is, vastly so. When you said, ‘This is either nothing, or a minor, or a nasty flu to 99% of the public’, I took you as a comparison to the yearly flu. It’s a false equivalence, imo, because it leaves out a lot of context. I’m actually not surprised the mortality rate is dropping, I expected as much, once we started getting more data on the scope of contagion, but we are no where near knowing all we should. Rate of contagion is a big factor in all of this. Maybe in a couple of years, yes, this may end up in flu-like comparison mode, but we aren’t there. Not even close. But sconnie hit it exactly right. We have failed as a nation and as a society if someone, anyone, has to choose a method of death - illness vs starvation. this game of Russian roulette ... I don’t think anyone should be forced to play for any reason, and it will be largely those in the worst economic brackets.

The answer is testing. And individual due diligence, which I have far less faith in. Minnesota will likely lead the country in showing how we can reopen as safely as possible, sooner than others, by knowing who has immunities and who are safe to go back to work because Minnesotanis ramped up and ready to test 10s of thousands of people. And testing for the virus in greater numbers with quicker results to find the hot spots sooner. That is the answer. We still have a bit to go, but that is the answer to when and how we can get people back to work. I understand some need to work ... and that shows me how greatly support for those is so inequitable in this country. Given the nature of this disease, and so much is still not known, anyone in a high risk group should not be forced back to work for any reason and given the support they need until such time it is safe for them. Unfortunately, that is not how we do business here, and unfortunately many will die as a result. If you don’t HAVE to go back to work, you shouldn’t, at least not immediately. It should not be a choice of want, but of necessity, and that is for the greater good. And greater support should be available to those that have the greatest need but have preexisting conditions that make them the most vulnerable to be out there. More support should be allocated to small businesses, unfortunately, not how the Republican Senate views it. But for those who have to work, when testing has proven it’s good to send people back out there, we still need to be diligent about safety and hygiene. what safeties will employers be providing for? Will the employer be responsible to see they can still distance? Will there be ample hand sanitizers positioned at all work stations? Some forms of masks to wear? Ample sick time and medical coverage? All of that should be made mandatory in order to require a workforce to go back to work. But many employers won’t do this. Sad, but true. But your claims that this is no worse than the flu are simply false. False, false, false! And as a moderator, please do not repeat such claims. Please read. Sconnie pointed that out to you. The contagion rate is higher and length of time a person is contagious is believed to be longer, the severity is higher, no one is immune (well, or no one was, that is changing, but not enough yet). And the severity is higher. The annual flu has a death rate of .1%, but it also affects a lower amount of the population because, people have immunities, people can get vaccinations. It’s not a simple, this is just like the flu, let’s get back to work. It’s far more severe and far more complicated to do that. And if you know someone who is starving and can help out, do it. If you and your family are starving, PM me and I’ll help you.

That was well stated. And you are right about how many Americans view freedoms and why this will be a struggle. I have a lot more to say on that subject, but it goes well beyond the scope of the Coronavirus discussion. Thanks.

This. This is step one to getting things reopened, at Least for one state. This is the priority. Good job, Minnesota, Gov. Walz, Mayo Clinic and the U of M! Rah rah rah, sky-u-mah! https://www.mprnews.org/story/2020/04/22/in-breakthrough-announcement-minn-unveils-major-covid19-testing-push?fbclid=IwAR1I_1g2VBiFt-uWs71TDX6jNhb1_1EJeFLiYxDlyzGuZCczie84Og6Z3uQ

Glunn ... most everyone here agrees with you that should be happening and should have been happening for a couple months now. I’ve been saying this since February. That it hasn’t happened lies with one person, and one person only. I know you don’t accept that as an answer, but that is THE answer. Some private businesses did take it upon themselves to do some of this. And some were in process of revamping to produce when the order was finally given to ramp up production of ventilators. If various companies aren’t set up to produce certain items it does take some time to reverse course and reset production ... sconnie addressed this very well, actually, earlier. But to demand businesses ramp up and produce, and produce items they may not already be set up to do, and produce them in very large quantities to cover the population, it takes presidential orders to do that if we want it when we want it, like now, in order to provide hair salons and other businesses with the necessary PPE in order to reopen as safely as possible. And tests ... we need those, too. There aren’t even close to what we need, far from it. Some states are forging their own relationships and finding some solutions for necessary supplies, but they can’t demand production.

Looking for something to do after your ‘to do’ lists are complete? Here’s a good project: https://nerdist.com/article/world-largest-puzzle-kodak/?fbclid=IwAR1kD2j8hiuGNAauIN2YIAsOmzHoF-t6FxZ6NHSDEMcV2V7ezUscjUc7sdQ

Yeah, for cutters and stylists, I know of no one in all my life who has ever worn gloves, and have said this exact thing. But they may have to when they go back to work. Who knows. Colorists, however, yes, gloves, because of the chemicals, and even then have had a couple who said they didn’t like to but became a necessity for the skin on their hands.

By the way, studies are now showing that hydroxychloroquine isn’t the wonder drug it was being promoted to be ... and I have sadly learned to spell that ... https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/21/health/hydroxychloroquine-veterans-study/index.html?fbclid=IwAR1JzZ0yUm1hWympQGVKf5dGfMelXaoJgsHB8HKeKp1oKql6vwXo0v5kiKs

The pressure will increase as the government forces people back to work who are in the poorest income brackets. The ones they have to and don’t want to pay unemployment to. And with no school, will the government then pay for childcare so people can work? I have a friend who runs a daycare and was asked to keep it open for kids of essential workers ... and she still waiting for support. As for people and masks, I think your ‘easy’ solution is hugely idealistic. It would take presidential orders to make those masks in numbers needed. No, McConnell and the Senate Republicans won’t be shamed into bypassing him. When the Illinois governor spoke with Trump about supplies needed, n95 masks and tests, and was assured by the president they would be sent immediately, they received 300,000 surgical masks and no tests. But yes, of course we have enough of everything for everyone, the president says. Before sending anyone back to work, yes, everyone needs proper protections, but testing is key. Brian has been saying it endlessly, I have been saying it endlessly. Masks are one thing, testing, testing, TESTING is the first thing. Testing for the virus and testing for the antibodies. Testing first. Masks 2nd, and if the president orders them made for everyone, which he won’t. He won’t order the necessary needs for hospitals and health care workers, why would he order this done for everyone in the populace? And again with masks, I threw your suggestion at my sister, who is a doctor. She kind of sighed, was non-committal and wasn’t convinced, at all, that that could or should be a solution to getting people back to work safely so you can get a haircut. People are still people and as much as you’d like to believe everyone will be compliant, people won’t be. They won’t get them on right, they’ll touch them, they won’t clean them or clean them properly. Yes, masks will help, but that isn’t really a practical solution. There are some individuals I would trust more than others to get it right. I, personally, would trust my hair person. She actually has an n95 mask and has had it for some time because of allergies. But I wouldn’t trust everyone who she comes in contact with. I wouldn’t trust everyone in the salon. In a nutshell, I think your idea relies on way too many ifs to make it a viable solution in the short term, and by short term I mean over a month or two or even three. And because the priority, imo, needs to be testing first to see who can return to work safely and start back that way.