Coronavirus, Covid 19 Discussion and How It Has Affected Your Daily Life Chat Thread

[ChocolateMouse]

Some guy at my husband's work told my husband his son had all the symptoms... And he was out working!

People need to think long and hard. If your family member had it, has it, or shows signs of it... Stay home!

My husband asked him not to return to pick up products until 2 weeks from that day and if he can't comply then it'll become bigger than it needs to be.

There's now a stimulus so people need to stay home! Companies will pay because they now can...

This guy was a contractor... Self employed. He can take all the time he wants off. They make big bucks here because everything is being developed. There's VERY GOOD economy in VA.

The paid sick leave thing came to mind too. Independent contractors don't get covered by company paid sick leave. So he might be "able" to take time off but not REALLY able to take time off cause he needs the money. Independent contractors are also not covered by the new stimulus bill. Only companies between 50 and 500 employees are required to give paid sick leave and it is temporary to the covid outbreak. A lot of people fall through the cracks with bills like these.

If you want these people to stay home they need to have reliable incomes and be actually able to do so. Many people use contractors and temp workers specifically so they can avoid giving benefits like that. The gig economy is a mess. Those loopholes need to be closed and people provided with paid sick leave and reliable wages or this will keep happening.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Today I get to try to figure out how to host my bi-weekly DND game remotely. Probably something with a webcam and a video call. We might use a chat bot for rolling numbers for the dice part of the game. I need to give character sheets digitally to some people so they know what their abilities are and they need to send me theirs digitally too for the same reason.

Most of today will probably be spent sorting the tech for that out.

 

[Kris5902]

Today I get to try to figure out how to host my bi-weekly DND game remotely. Probably something with a webcam and a video call. We might use a chat bot for rolling numbers for the dice part of the game. I need to give character sheets digitally to some people so they know what their abilities are and they need to send me theirs digitally too for the same reason.

Most of today will probably be spent sorting the tech for that out.

Check out “roll 20” and the chat aspect can be handled through a program called “discord” that’s how we do our weekly sessions remotely.

Our D&D group lost DH and I to moving back to the farm first (from a city), then about 1 year later the DM moved to a different slightly less remote island. Shortly thereafter he started looking into ways to play with everyone living in different cities and on different islands. We have been using it for about a year now.

 

[FortCluck]

The paid sick leave thing came to mind too. Independent contractors don't get covered by company paid sick leave. So he might be "able" to take time off but not REALLY able to take time off cause he needs the money. Independent contractors are also not covered by the new stimulus bill. Only companies between 50 and 500 employees are required to give paid sick leave and it is temporary to the covid outbreak. A lot of people fall through the cracks with bills like these.

If you want these people to stay home they need to have reliable incomes and be actually able to do so. Many people use contractors and temp workers specifically so they can avoid giving benefits like that. The gig economy is a mess. Those loopholes need to be closed and people provided with paid sick leave and reliable wages or this will keep happening.

This person has 50+ people. Contractors that go to my husband's work usually have 50+ employees under them. You can't be a single one man show and go to his work. There's even a sign saying you have to be at a certain requirement to buy from them because they deal with big businesses and contractors who build 10+ houses a month.

 

[Boonie Stomper]

Covid-19 the real truth

The War of the World story was not based in fiction.
In fact, aliens DID invade our planet, suffer exposure to a common virus, and a few days later, ones remaining on earth in highly classified military facilities died from the virus.

Some of the aliens, however, managed to escape earth before they died. Their spaceship returned to their home far, far away.

On their return, their ship's A.I. informed their leader of the war they had fought on a distant planet, and provided detailed Earth historical data and samples, including the deadly virus which killed the infected occupants of the spaceship, which had been collected before departure a few days after their first landing.

Of course, the ship was quarantined properly upon its return home. All biological evidence was isolated in special containment laboratories, and their work began...
....to prepare for revenge!

The aliens succeeded in identifying many pathogens alien to them, including variants of what we on Earth know as Corona Viruses.

They also had samples of humans which they had abducted.

After a short while they learned of the human body's weaknesses and tissue vulnerabilities. The aliens, having decoded and manipulating their virus samples genetically, began launching these GMVs (Genetically Modified Viruses) in bait pellets which they designed to appeal to several species of Earth's other lifeforms which they had also abducted and studied.

Their first launch baits were only partially effective. They know, because they left A.I. on our planet to stream data from our A.I. in more recent fly-by missions (but that's another story).

Thei latest bait-impregnated version of our common coronavirus is what we now know as SARS-COV-2.

The baits they launched landed in Hubei, China. They were eaten by local bats which by means of their droppings contaminating a food loved by humans, was consumed in a Wuhan take-out.

BTW here is the old Orson Wells radio broadcast of War of The World:

Edit: oh. Yes. I HATE doing taxes!
...back to ***yawn-roar*** tax-filing...

 

[Beer can]

Pretty sure beer and wine are better than soda which has no nutritional value and way more empty calories. And there is some benefits with beer and wine in moderation, none with soda that also causes tooth decay. Not saying booze is awesome for our health but a lot out there we enjoy also isn't.
Anyway not here to debate that I was just looking up to see if soft drink companies are still open as essential. Didn't find anything but they are having probs with supplies making low cal and zero sugar. Disrupted the supply chain of artificial sweeteners from China because of coronavirus.
The primary artificial sweeteners used include aspartame, acesulfame potassium, sucralose, saccharin, cyclamate and steviol gylcosides come from China.
Splenda, a sucralose product used, is made in the US and not sourced from China.

I'm don't drink soda anyway but sure am glad I don't diet soda.

 

[21hens-incharge]

Went to the grocery a bit ago. It was still largely bare in there but better than it had been.
I managed to get Kleenex (WHAT!? I am old and the cold wind makes my nose run! Don't judge me.)
Dish soap was sparse but there. TP....I didn't even look.
No cat litter.
Got bananas and milk!

They had pretty much everything I needed.

There weren't many people in there. I had been gifted a box of latex mechanics gloves a while beck because they didn't fit the mechanic. I did wear a pair and brought my own disinfecting wipes to wipe down the cart.

 

[Folly's place]

I'm keeping a running grocery list, so when I do go, it's ready. Nothing essential, so the list will get longer, until I really do need to make that visit. Wearing a mask!
For the first time, I'm using the drive through at the pharmacy rather than going inside.
Stay home, and stay healthy!
Mary

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Check out “roll 20” and the chat aspect can be handled through a program called “discord” that’s how we do our weekly sessions remotely.

Our D&D group lost DH and I to moving back to the farm first (from a city), then about 1 year later the DM moved to a different slightly less remote island. Shortly thereafter he started looking into ways to play with everyone living in different cities and on different islands. We have been using it for about a year now.

I'm actually already looking at Roll20. XD It looks good. We're going to probably do that and some sort of video call.

This person has 50+ people. Contractors that go to my husband's work usually have 50+ employees under them. You can't be a single one man show and go to his work. There's even a sign saying you have to be at a certain requirement to buy from them because they deal with big businesses and contractors who build 10+ houses a month.

Ah, well that's good. But the bill hasn't been signed into law yet, let alone enforced. Just because he WILL qualify doesn't mean he DOES qualify right now.

The statement still applies. Until everyone has paid sick leave people will go into work sick to pay their bills.

Now if they already have paid sick leave and have enough left to stay home, I got nothin'.

 

[Urchickchic]

Has anyone had issues with their chickens being stolen for eggs or meat? I've become super paranoid about this. I know eggs are in short supply -- I've had a lot of requests for them. Just curious what is going on and geographically where.