Jax and Coronavirus

[Steve]

Breaking news here:

https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/article/regency-square-mall-closes-for-covid-19-pandemic

[Peter Griffin]

Breaking news here:

https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/article/regency-square-mall-closes-for-covid-19-pandemic

That was probably the best place to practice social distancing. Tens of thousands of square feet of space...empty

[tufsu1]

^ I needed to get some new pants a few weeks ago - and the Avenues and SJTC closed before I could get to it - ended up going to the Dillards Clearance Center - it was empty...a bit eery and disturbing.

[Adam White]

New experience for my wife and I... she had never purchased and used hair color in a box. She recruited me to apply the concoction. I am happy to report that the exercise was a success. Perhaps I will try nails next...

I trusted my sister to buzz my head. She did a pretty good job until she started trimming flyaways with the guard off and BUZZZT...she took a big ole chunk out of the hair on the side of my head. I look like I got hit by a shovel. For the first time I'm grateful that I'm not allowed to be sociable

I shaved my head - I am balding and figured that 12 weeks or so of isolation was a good time to find out how it looks. The jury is still out on that. My wife ended up shaving her head for charity.

[Adam White]

Can I just assume that everybody has been watching/has watched Tiger King?

Watched the entire thing one night this past weekend.

I really liked it. Thought it started out a bit slow, but was hooked by the second episode. Honestly, if it were fiction, I'd say it's too outlandish to take it seriously. It's insane.

I will look into Ozark. Been watching Brooklyn Nine-Nine and want to find something new to watch.

[thelakelander]

I was the same. The first was going to be my last but it got interesting towards the end, which kept me going. Since, weekdays and weekends feel the same to me right now, I just binged the entire thing.

[BridgeTroll]

New experience for my wife and I... she had never purchased and used hair color in a box. She recruited me to apply the concoction. I am happy to report that the exercise was a success. Perhaps I will try nails next...

I trusted my sister to buzz my head. She did a pretty good job until she started trimming flyaways with the guard off and BUZZZT...she took a big ole chunk out of the hair on the side of my head. I look like I got hit by a shovel. For the first time I'm grateful that I'm not allowed to be sociable

As a follow up... All of my wife's hair is still on her head and it didn't turn into some weird unintentional color...AND... she is happy with it... I may have found a new "husbandly" duty... 

[vicupstate]

Honestly, if it were fiction, I'd say it's too outlandish to take it seriously. It's insane.

My thoughts exactly.

Currently watching The Keepers.  It has been very interesting so far.  Unbelievable the actions of some people that are typically held in high esteem.

[wanderson91]

Very cool interactive map from Florida Department of Health, gets as detailed as breakdowns by county.

https://fdoh.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/8d0de33f260d444c852a615dc7837c86

[Charles Hunter]

^ You go down to the ZIP code level, just click the Cases by ZIP Code tab at the bottom of the map. (Just wish you could adjust the darkness of the shading so the streets were more visible.)
32207 is so high because some of the cases are likely attributed to Baptist Medical Center, instead of the home address.

[wanderson91]

Whoops, I meant to type "by zipcode"

And yeah, I didn't think about that. Makes me wonder how busy the other hospitals are.

[JaxJersey-licious]

Left the house yesterday for the first time in 15 or so days - and somehow how ended up with a cough last night. Obviously, I didn't contract a cough from going to the supermarket a couple of hours earlier - but I don't know how I got the damn cough, considering I've been holed up with the same three other people for weeks. Yeah, my wife has gone to the supermarket a couple of times, but she (and my kids) are not coughing or anything. Weird.

Things are fine, otherwise. I found out yesterday that I am being furloughed at work. So my last day of work in Thursday. The gov't will pay 80% of my wages and my company is going to pay the remaining 20% for as long as they can. I have no idea how long this will last - it will be a minimum of three weeks, but it could be months. There is a possibility that I will go back to work at some point and they will furlough someone else from my team.

I'm really glad you're all doing OK and wish the same fro everyone else in this forum and your loved ones. You brought up something I've been curious about: How your country's system for taking care of laid of workers giving them 80% of their regular salary works. Would this be for all employees not working or mainly people temporarily laid off? How did they calculate what people would get? How does this work for gig workers or other laid off workers with wildly fluctuating income? Are there gov't incentives for employers to hire back laid off workers? So many other questions...I could go on and on.

What I really want to figure out is how your system for dealing with the economic fallout of the virus compares with the USA model of putting the states unemployment compensation system on steroids. Both are great and much needed concepts but I'm not sure which is most economically beneficial overall.

[MusicMan]

SMM I agree with you 100%.  That being said, please share with the rest of us how you "expect to profit", please!  Share the wealth, man!

[Adam White]

Left the house yesterday for the first time in 15 or so days - and somehow how ended up with a cough last night. Obviously, I didn't contract a cough from going to the supermarket a couple of hours earlier - but I don't know how I got the damn cough, considering I've been holed up with the same three other people for weeks. Yeah, my wife has gone to the supermarket a couple of times, but she (and my kids) are not coughing or anything. Weird.

Things are fine, otherwise. I found out yesterday that I am being furloughed at work. So my last day of work in Thursday. The gov't will pay 80% of my wages and my company is going to pay the remaining 20% for as long as they can. I have no idea how long this will last - it will be a minimum of three weeks, but it could be months. There is a possibility that I will go back to work at some point and they will furlough someone else from my team.

I'm really glad you're all doing OK and wish the same fro everyone else in this forum and your loved ones. You brought up something I've been curious about: How your country's system for taking care of laid of workers giving them 80% of their regular salary works. Would this be for all employees not working or mainly people temporarily laid off? How did they calculate what people would get? How does this work for gig workers or other laid off workers with wildly fluctuating income? Are there gov't incentives for employers to hire back laid off workers? So many other questions...I could go on and on.

What I really want to figure out is how your system for dealing with the economic fallout of the virus compares with the USA model of putting the states unemployment compensation system on steroids. Both are great and much needed concepts but I'm not sure which is most economically beneficial overall.

Thanks - we're all okay, though I do get a bit worried once a week when my wife does the grocery shop. I just found out we had 980 (I think) fatalities reported in the past 24 hours. That's insane. Our total number is now approaching 10k.

It's hard to answer, because I only know so much. As far as I understand it, a business can furlough some or all of its workers and the business gets a grant to cover 80% of each employee's monthly salary, up to £2500 (gross). In my case, my company is topping up my pay so I should get 100% of my pay. This arrangement will probably be reviewed at some point and possibly extended.

As we're furloughed, we not laid off. We're being paid not to work, essentially (or paid for being unable to work). It's called the 'job retention scheme' so the idea is that we'd all have jobs afterwards. Of course, if there is a recession or depression and companies go under, then there's nothing that can be done. I fully expect there to be redundancies at my work after this is all done and dusted - I just hope my area of the business isn't too badly affected.

Self-employed people can get some sort of payment as well - it's based on the average of the previous few years' earnings or something. People who've been self-employed for less than a year miss out, I think. Unemployed people get Universal Credit and that has been upped and is now something like £94 p/w if you're single and over 25. I think they might be increasing it more, but I am not sure.

We have the benefit, of course, of having a single-payer health system that is free at point of use. So, assuming the hospitals aren't overloaded with patients, you can get treated for the virus and it won't cost you anything. Unless you get a prescription - and those are around £9.

I don't know how all this is going to pan out - but if people can't work, the gov't has to do something to prop up the system. This is just as much about saving capitalism as it is about helping me eat and pay for a roof over my head. Speaking of that - banks are also offering a 3 month mortgage holiday for those who can't pay. Not sure if I will do that or not.

[JaxJersey-licious]

^^^^ Thanks for the insight. And that's a very good point you made how government intervention is needed to save capitalism from itself in these bonkers times. The big debate for me was whether having employers furlough workers or just letting them go would be better for rehiring and restaffing once the worst is over. In one of my jobs my employer decided to let go of everyone and close shop once they found out this shutdown would be for the long haul. i know a lot of my former coworkers will not be able to come back once they're up and running but probably would have stayed if a good portion of their income was guaranteed through this crisis. Now my company could qualify for loans at no interest the government would fund but would going through rehiring, retraining, payroll and HR hurdles they have to navigate be worth it for them, not to mention the application and qualification process for that grant that may takes weeks to receive. It's a real unanswerable question now given so much of the future is unknown and uncharted but we're blessed to have something in place to ease these burdens.

I would be impressed if the U.K. could come close to matching our monumental stupidity and waste when it comes to Gov giveaways. The level of deadbeat we have achieved be it individual, corporate, or government....is pretty impressive. I would be disgusted but I expect t to profit so much indirectly it is hard to be too upset.

I agree that there is no entity locally, statewide, nationally, or internationally not exempt from the scrutiny of their handling of the virus and its aftermath. We all have way of dealing with the frustrations this virus has caused and one way I'm doing that is broadening my understanding and empathy for people more than what I normally would during the days before this outbreak. So my tolerance for the malfeasance of others has increased if not just to retain my sanity but for hopes of seeing a path through all this that will be beneficial for us all.

This does not mean I feel moochers and fraudsters should get a pass on all this: By any means necessary they should be shamed for and deterred from their actions. An I'm not naive to the possibility that these systems governments are trying to put in place will to be rife with people undeservedly cashing in on this crisis. But let's say that you indeed have a foolproof method of monetizing the greediness and incompetence inherent in these plans or if it's just some fever dream of yours that you will get back at those fuckers gaming the system by gaming them in return, all I can say is we all have ways of dealing with the frustration this virus has caused...

I won't judge.