Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[mission27]

Just now, TLO said:

Not to mention the MoL has had to postpone multiple summits of debauchery. Can’t put a price tag on that tbh

The Ronald Goldman Memorial Summit on June 12th will not be postponed, regardless of any extenuating circumstances.  

[MWil23]

1 hour ago, JDBrocks said:

Let's be nuanced when called for. My wife would laugh in your face if you said this to her. Hospitals are still operating with other units, sometimes 3-4 of them, converted into ICU wards. Drugs are still scarce. PPE is still being used longer than it should be. Reopening the economy in Chicago would be an absolute disaster right now.

Reopening the economy is not an on/off toggle. 

And my 3 sibling nurses who work in hospitals would laugh in your wife’s face. 

[squire12]

8 hours ago, WizeGuy said:

What gets neglected a lot is- hospitals are losing a crazy amount of revenue right now due to no elective cases being ran. I work at Strong Hospital in Rochester, NY, and we've been forced to furlough people, cut overtime, raises, and freeze hiring new employees. We cannot bleed money like this for long. I believe we'll start to slowly re-open at the end of May-early June. Numbers are looking much better. We weren't overrun during the first outbreak with much less experience and resources, so I think we can monitor the numbers much more effectively and react accordingly.

Hospital I work for is projecting a multiple hundred million of loss for the 4Q of the fiscal year that ends in June 2020.  $200-300 million in losses.  No elective surgery for 6+ weeks.  Just this week starting a graded return to elective surgeries probably around 30-40% and likely to progress gradually as things with COVID stay stable.  BUT, you don't get that lost time back.  I think the plan is to try to do longer days for surgical cases and elective case surgery on Saturday, but there is a limit on the resources and staffing needed to run the OR at a higher capacity.   Add to that, less treatments for other illness that have been put off to limit the exposure to high risk groups and the conservation of PPE, other equipment.  

[mistakey]

the thing that blows my mind is that our healthcare system is built on elective surgeries that cost far too much money its as if this system doesnt make any sense whatsoever

[Glen]

42 minutes ago, mistakey said:

the thing that blows my mind is that our healthcare system is built on elective surgeries that cost far too much money its as if this system doesnt make any sense whatsoever

Makes perfect sense.

Uber rich are fine.

Everyone else isn’t.

[Shanedorf]

1 hour ago, theJ said:

There's an opposite faction that is also suffering because they're out of work and can't get money.  It's not a small group of people either.

Quite honestly - there's suffering all around, which is why this is a nuanced and complex discussion.

It certainly is a complex discussion. but maybe we can find some common ground and an outlet for our passion & energy at the same time
Regardless of where you come down on this issue, we can all do something to help others right here and right now
I'm not calling anybody out, I'm calling everybody out.
IF the sum total of our concern for the plight of others is using them to bolster arguments on the internet - then we all suck.

If you want things opened, what are you going to do to make that easier for those impacted by the opening ?
If you want things to stay closed, what are you going to do to make it easier on the people who are struggling with the closure ?

Its time to grow a pair and show the convictions you have in your beliefs.

Acta Non Verba

Some people have already posted cool stuff they are doing to help, hopefully there will be many more.
Meals on Wheels needs more drivers, if you can drive a car - you can help. The time to act is now

[vikesfan89]

3 hours ago, JDBrocks said:

Let's be nuanced when called for. My wife would laugh in your face if you said this to her. Hospitals are still operating with other units, sometimes 3-4 of them, converted into ICU wards. Drugs are still scarce. PPE is still being used longer than it should be. Reopening the economy in Chicago would be an absolute disaster right now.

Reopening the economy is not an on/off toggle. 

What state is that? I feel like there is enough PPE, there just isn't enough getting to the hard hit areas

[vikesfan89]

8 hours ago, dtait93 said:

I thought this video was informative. Yet YouTube keeps taking it down. Hmmm wonder why

 

I was going to share this but I haven't watched the whole thing and figured would get riled up

[TLO]

8 hours ago, dtait93 said:

I thought this video was informative. Yet YouTube keeps taking it down. Hmmm wonder why

 

The real question is who cares about what one doctor who is from the armpit of CA has to say? I saw people pushing this one “doctor” on Facebook, and he was just some chiropractor saying to drink tonic water. I’m sorry, but I’ll believe the likes of Fauci and Birx before whichever random doctor some right wing propaganda network finds to prop up. 

[D82]

1 minute ago, TLO said:

The real question is who cares about what one doctor who is from the armpit of CA has to say? I saw people pushing this one “doctor” on Facebook, and he was just some chiropractor saying to drink tonic water. I’m sorry, but I’ll believe the likes of Fauci and Birx before whichever random doctor some right wing propaganda network finds to prop up. 

It's worth noting that just because they are doctors, it doesn't mean that they have extensive knowledge when it comes to virology. That's literally Fauci and Birx's area of expertise. I think these guys are just ER doctors, right? 

[Xenos]

11 hours ago, acowboys62 said:

Their lockdown does not sound all that different from some parts of the US. Curious if other factors are at play. They also have a massive advantage of their location/borders/etc. 

Also the below quote from the article I think is what a lot of people have issue with (In the US), the government determining what people do with their personal lives. The message, while at its core is the same as “flatten the curve” just sounds awful. 

"We are opening up the economy, but we're not opening up people's social lives," Ms Ardern said at the daily government briefing.

A lot of others have brought up the numerous advantages that New Zealand have over us. But I'll address the last quote. That's the difference between Americans and Kiwis

The people of New Zealand actually trust their government, and with good reason. So a quote like that probably won't be taken the wrong way like it would in America.

We'll see what happens when they start relaxing their restrictions. It's also fall now down there. If this thing is seasonal, that's definitely one way we'll find out. Hopefully no resurgence.

[rob_shadows]

Woke up today to find out that my boss has decided to give every employee a $500 bonus added onto their checks this week as an employee appreciation bonus for everyone working through all this. 

Still not used to working for people I genuinely enjoy working for.

[JDBrocks]

51 minutes ago, vikesfan89 said:

What state is that? I feel like there is enough PPE, there just isn't enough getting to the hard hit areas

Chicago is in Illinois. There’s not enough PPE.

[JDBrocks]

2 hours ago, MWil23 said:

And my 3 sibling nurses who work in hospitals would laugh in your wife’s face. 

Cool bro.

[Xenos]

On 4/21/2020 at 11:29 PM, naptownskinsfan said:

There were obviously some loopholes left to help some larger companies exploit this.  However, when you talk about a franchise, you are talking about someone who is typically operating under an LLC or sole proprietor.  That helps mitigate losses to them as the business owner, as well as the franchise company.  

So why should a Ruth Chris franchisee, who is either shut down or under limited operations, and has under 500 employees, not qualify?  He's operating his own restaurant, paying a premium to use and operate the Ruth Chris brand, supply chain and business structure, but everything else falls to him.  

The one benefit that some of the franchise companies might have is a larger legal department who could parse the wording of the bill faster and get it into the hands of franchisees, whereas the bar owner down the street has to either go through it himself, or schedule a time with an attorney to go through it (and my guess is that attorney is backed up on numerous other issues right now too.) My boss is a franchisee, and there has always been a great relationship between the home office and the franchisees in regards to support for the owners and working collaboratively.  The legal department absolutely powered through everything and had information available within 24 hours of the bill passing, as most of the franchisees in the company qualify for PPP.   Meanwhile, others like McDonalds are well documented how against the grain they could be and how they often make decisions without much consulting with the franchisees.  

Sorry I never got back to responding to this. Something called life and NFL draft took my attention.

Yes, I understand that there are smaller franchises that technically are smaller companies. I believe I read something where the Corp could have applied for the Big Business loan (the $500 Billion one) and could have utilized it for their franchises. But I can't find it now. I don't blame the smaller franchises for what happened. I blame their larger corporation for not doing a better job of taking care of them. Also articles like this piss me off.

Sorry I'm using GQ as a source.

https://www.gq.com/story/ruths-chris-small-business-steakhouse

Quote

Take, for example, Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, which has more than 150 locations and more than 5,700 employees, and is owned by the publicly traded Ruth's Hospitality Group. The company made $42 million in profit on $468 million in revenue last year, which the company partly spent on more than $5 million in stock buybacks, and it has $86 million in cash reserves. Ruth's Hospitality Group successfully applied for the maximum $10 million in PPP loans for two of its properties, even as the company reports that it has furloughed a "significant number of field and home office team members."

Employees told Popular Information that in locations across the country, managers and cooks remain on the payroll, but no other hourly employees. One furloughed worker in Indianapolis received a final check in late March for less than $150. Meanwhile, CEO Cheryl Henry reportedly makes $6.1 million a year, with a base salary of $650,000. The PPP loan is forgivable as long as a company spends at least 75 percent of the funds on salaries up to $100,000. As Popular Information reports, Ruth's Hospitality could make that threshold merely by keeping on 150 employees.

 

There's a lot of blame to go around including the banks who let this happen, the way the bill was written that allows loopholes, etc. I'm glad that Ruth Chris gave the money back. Companies like Shake Shack don't even have the franchise excuse when they took the money.

Also glad to see some of the bigger companies give back the loans. Though why did the LA Lakers get a loan?

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/which-companies-are-returning-their-ppp-loan-here-s-list-n1194566