.@MayorAdler + Travis Co. have declared a “local state of disaster” following recommendations from Dr. Escott + the Expert Advisory Panel. This decision effectively cancels SXSW + proactively increases preventative measures for #ATX events.
More info: https://t.co/xcTXBfTDFx pic.twitter.com/TaelcQdtBb
— City of Austin (@austintexasgov) March 6, 2020
Which means a lot of people — not just acts & vendors, but everyone involved in Austin’s tourist / entertainment scene — are losing revenue they badly needed. Per the Verge:
SXSW, the annual tech, music, and film meetup held in downtown Austin, is the latest major conference to be canceled due to the coronavirus outbreak, and just one week before it was slated to start. It is the first time in the event’s 34-year history that it’s been canceled. The festival was scheduled to take place from March 13th to March 22nd, yet Austin Mayor Steve Adler today announced that, amid an increasing number of high-profile speaker and company withdrawals and growing public health concerns, the festival will no longer be taking place.
“I’ve issued an order that effectively cancels South by Southwest,” Adler said, referencing an emergency order put in place Friday over the coronavirus. The decision will almost certainly be a harsh blow to the city’s economy, as SXSW brings in hundreds of millions of dollars in tourism, ticket sales, and other revenue streams every year. Last year, the festival made $355.9 million for the city of Austin, SXSW said in November.
The private company that organizes SXSW, which has yet to detail its refund policies, made clear in a statement issued on Twitter and its website that this was a decision made by Austin city officials and out of its hands. Yet the festival may end up taking place in some form or another later this year…
A petition on the website Change.org calling for the event’s cancellation amassed more than 55,000 signatures, and high-profile speakers like Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey pulled out ahead of the announcement. Amazon, Apple, and Netflix all said they would no longer premiere new film and TV projects at the show, and countless companies — tech firms Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, and Intel and news organizations like CNN and Mashable — also withdrew from having official, on-the-ground presences at the festival…
And since #ECCC was included in this morning’s COVID-19 roundup — per the Seattle Times, “Emerald City Comic Con postponed due to coronavirus concerns”:
… Organizers announced the decision to move the four-day celebration of pop culture to this summer because of the coronavirus outbreak in Seattle. The event was originally scheduled for March 12-15 at Washington State Convention Center. The event draws around 100,000 people annually.
The company made the announcement in a statement on its website Friday morning…
Earlier this week, fans and creators had debated whether to attend the con in the days leading up to the postponement. Some thought it was irresponsible to hold the event because of the potential to spread the disease around the country, while others took a more sanguine wait-and-see approach. Many wrote on social media that their livelihoods would be impacted by a cancelation or postponement, while others wondered if it was worth attending a diminished event.
Reedpop acknowledged the heavy impact the decision would likely have on the hundreds of participants — from artists to security guards — who depend on the annual event as part of their financial plan.
“We know that this decision is going to greatly impact many of our individual creators, small businesses and service workers,” Friday’s statement read. “To those whose careers depend on ECCC – we will do everything that we can over the coming days and weeks to highlight your work and we ask that our entire community support you as we realize your personal livelihoods may be impacted.”…
lamh36
wow
Kent
My daughter’s best friend has tickets to the big BTS concert in the Rose Bowl in early May. My daughter is an invited guest so I just bought airline tickets for her to fly to LA. Now we are wondering if it will even happen.
Yes, I know, first world problems. But still, I expect this sort of thing is happening in every corner of the world right now.
Warren Terra
This article has a link for ECCC refunds and has some links that can help interested people support the artists who had been depending on ECCC for a chunk of their annual income.
Roger Moore
@lamh36:
I don’t know if Trump was born without empathy or if his dad beat it out of him at a young age, but he is clearly devoid of any ability to consider the thoughts, feelings, or even the physical well being of other people.
lamh36
Repost from last thread, but more on topic here,
So apparently, they hadn’t even told the passengers yet they found out when Pence made his annoucememtn…smh
twitter.com/stevenportnoy/status/1236075885008125953
PsiFighter37
My wife had a work conference next week that just got canceled today. Had to find a nice airline phone agent to get my ticket and my daughter’s ticket waived for a change later in the year. The damage is going to pile up fast and quick…would not be surprised if airlines need a bailout or even declare bankruptcy depending on how long this goes on for.
The hotel on the block I live in here in NYC usually has rooms for $400+ a night – now $150/night.
NotMax
Good place to drop this in (and will probably do so again in other threads over the weekend).
Not too long, DO read.
Why do we use soap?
debbie
@lamh36:
Again, I think the honorable thing would be if Trump offered to put up the passengers at a Trump property. Shouldn’t be tough since he thinks the virus isn’t serious.
Warren Terra
@NotMax: Soap can absolutely denature and inactivate virus particles.
debbie
@NotMax:
As one gets older, one’s skin produces less oils, even on the palms. I wonder if this would mean using less soap for a shorter time or even just water?
NotMax
@debbie
No. Thorough washing and lathering means thorough washing and lathering.
WereBear
@NotMax: As the recent Gaslit Nation podcast put it, “Wash like you touched Roger Stone!”
Baud
@lamh36:
It’s better to look good than to be good.
Cermet
@Warren Terra: Absoultly; soap is what makes washing so effective – whether “killing*” virus’s, chemically removing oil, or “coating” dirt so it is easly removed by rubbing – the magic is the soap. Any soap will do – just needs some time to work its magic.
(* devactivating by coating the viral shell so it can’t function. Of course, virus’s aren’t living.)
BruceFromOhio
Cancel everything. No gathering in groups greater than 3. The “infected” will be “quarantined”.
Miller’s gonna figure it out any time now, and then the stupid is really gonna catch fire.
Gin & Tonic
@NotMax:
I suspect you know this, but “hydrophobic” means “water-hating” and not “oil-loving.”
Baud
@WereBear:
We don’t want people to rub their skin off.
Roger Moore
@Warren Terra:
Soap can do that, but it probably isn’t going to kill bacteria, just help wash them away. I would expect that laurel sulfate-based hand washes would probably be better than soap at denaturing viruses and even bacteria; as you know, it’s used for exactly that purpose in the lab.
ziggy
@lamh36: How can anyone hear/read that, and not realize that he is demented?
NotMax
@Gin & Tonic
I didn’t write the article.
Roger Moore
@ziggy:
The listeners have a lesser form of the same dementia.
Luciamia
@debbie: Excellent idea!
lamh36
As ya’ll know I’m a Clinical Microbiologist. So I deal in bacteria, virus, etc on a daily basis in some way or another. So of course we had to come up with guidelines for Coronovirus. I’ll what WE are telling folks.
COVID-19 (Coronovirus) What you need to know
There are many types of human coronaviruses including some that commonly cause mild upper-respiratory tract illness.
SARS-CoV-2 is a novel (new) coronavirus that has not previously been seen in humans.
The respiratory disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 has been named COVID-19.
COVID-19 was first detected in China and has now been detected in 60 locations internationally, including in the United States.
Poe Larity
So is Corona anywhere near the Abruzzo part of Italy? Need to research a trellis system they use there and is not in any internets.
Adam L Silverman
@WereBear: That requires a Silkwood shower!
lamh36
@lamh36:
Symptoms: Reported illnesses have ranged from mild symptoms to severe illness and death for confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases. Symptoms may appear 2-14 days after exposure*: Fever Cough Shortness of breath People are thought to be most contagious when they are most symptomatic (the sickest), but some spread might be possible before people show symptoms.
Martin
President doesn’t care if you die, just don’t run up his golf score in the process.
chopper
i’m sure the restaurants and hotels in seattle aren’t havin it but it’s not a bad idea to postpone comic con.
lamh36
@lamh36:
COVID-19 What you should know
How is it spread?
Person-to-person spread
lamh36
@lamh36: How is it spread?
Spread from contact with infected surfaces or objects
lamh36
@lamh36:
COVID-19 What you should know.
Prevention
Avoid close contact with people who are sick. Stay home when you are sick. Clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces. Follow product instructions for application and wet time
Mike J
Trump called Jay Inslee a snake. Who the fuck calls their political opponents snakes? ???? A sign that he’s fucking demented and not fit to lead.
the former head of the WA Republican party said: “Jay Inslee and I started out together years ago in the State House. We disagree on a lot but he is ten times the human being Donald Trump is.”
I have a class to become a certified race official (for sailboat races). Not cancelled. It’s not a huge class, about 20, but a little concerning.
lamh36
@lamh36:
COVID-19 What you should know.
Prevention (cont…)
danielx
@lamh36:
What The Fuck?
debbie
@lamh36:
Thank you. I thought Covid-19 was the name of the virus, not the disease. Learning something about this every day.
lamh36
@lamh36:
CDC Recommendations for Facemasks
debbie
@lamh36:
Does anyone know how long the virus survives on surfaces?
Gravenstone
Maybe it’s my life long pessimism talking, but I think the people ‘postponing’ things hoping this will blow over in a few months are delusional. China had to functionally shut down an entire province to even start getting a handle on things. And that’s tenuous at best as others have pointed out here, we have no idea how things might go once they start relaxing that widespread quarantine. The US is highly unlikely to have the will to go to those lengths, until it’s way too late. This is shaping up to be a long and painful ride, likely until vaccines become widely available.
Roger Moore
@Mike J:
Bern feelers, apparently.
debbie
@Martin:
Typical for a CEO. All those fuckers ever care about is the bottom line. And the bottom line is always numbers, not human beings.
chopper
@Mike J:
the hell? why, cause inslee is actually taking care of shit and making him look bad?
Gravenstone
@Mike J:
Seems to be popular with some Sandersnistas. Once again Bernie and Trump seem to be cross-pollinating.
Roger Moore
@debbie:
This is beyond just wanting to avoid bad numbers. Anyone with an ounce of sense would realize that the numbers are only going to get worse if the disease spreads and becomes a pandemic. To all appearances, Trump really thinks he can stop the virus from spreading by preventing people from knowing about it. If we don’t know about it, it won’t be happening.
Chris T.
I read that as “cross-polluting” at first.
Luciamia
I use a grocery delivery service. Was starting my next shopping list… And figured things like Purelle and Lysol wipes would be sold out. But looks like Anything with any disinfectant use is out. Even a good old white bottle of Clorox bleach is gone. Wasn’t putting an order in till next week so hope it loosens up.
Oh and speaking of bleach.Stephen Colbert was talking about bogus cures and remedies on the internet. One idiot claiming you can cure the virus by drinking bleach!
People, please, do not drink bleach!
Adam L Silverman
@Mike J: Link?
Roger Moore
@Gravenstone:
It’s almost as if the same group of online trolls is promoting both of them. I wonder how that could be…
Gravenstone
@Chris T.: That works too.
Baud
@Luciamia:
Too bad you’re not Obama.
Mike J
@chopper: Yup. Here’s a link to Vance’s tweet, and he retweets video of dipshit. “I told Mike [Pence] not to be complimentary of the governor, because that governor is a snake.”
twitter.com/Chrisvance123/status/1236060760037404672
Baud
Test
Gravenstone
@Luciamia: I’ve been advocating for the MAGATs espousing the bleach cure to step up their game and get some industrial strength 12-15% hypochlorite solution. Good for what ails ya! Permanently…
NotMax
@Luciamia
Yeah. Save it for mixing up a mess o’ meth while you’re stuck at home.
:)
Luciamia
@Baud: okay, took me a second to get that.?
NotMax
@lamh36
One other thing those who go that route might find helpful would be recommended procedures for disposing of used face masks.
Mike J
@Adam L Silverman: I linked at 51, or just click my name. It’s my most current tweet.
lamh36
@debbie: that I’m not sure there is exact literature on Coronovirus, but if it like the flu virus, then those that tend to be able to be transferred to hands and causing an infection can survive on hard surfaces for at least 24 hours.
A virus unlike bacteria, needs a host, so it’s only “live” long enough to optimize finding a new host. Flu virus tend to run their course fairly quickly once infected unless the person is immunocomprised in some way
zhena gogolia
@lamh36:
Here’s my question. We’re told not to buy face masks so that they can be available for health-care workers. But what do we do when we get sick and we don’t have any facemasks?
SiubhanDuinne
@lamh36:
Just responded to this on the earlier thread, but since it’s dead, shall more or less repeat my response: This is not unlike the way this (mal)administration handles the firing of Cabinet secretaries and other staffers whom they consider a bit too, um, turbulent.
joel hanes
Which means a lot of people — not just vendors, [and music-lovers and musicians] but everyone involved in Austin’s tourist / entertainment scene— are losing revenue they badly needed much less likely to contract and transmit a wildly-infectious disease for which there is no vaccine and no cure, which seems to kill maybe 4% of older male patients who smoked or who have cardio or lung or immune system problems (hello, Willie Nelson) and somewhat fewer of the same kind of women, and which may kill one in a thousand healthy adults who is infected.
So $350 million foregone so that a thousand people do not die in the next few months, and thousands more who that thousand would have infected in turn, including health care workers, first responders, relatives, school teachers …
And all the people in the communties to which the SXSW attendees would have spread it.
Ruckus
@Roger Moore:
I don’t think that Fred helped him in any way but his narcissism is his, he owns it lock, stock and bullshit. His entire life has revolved around him and how great he is supposed to be. Fred’s leaving him millions didn’t help that at all.
Adam L Silverman
@Mike J: I saw it. Thanks!
Mike J
@Adam L Silverman: And here’s a link to what Inslee is doing.
twitter.com/GovInslee/status/1236053588687728641
lamh36
@zhena gogolia: If you are sick with the symptoms and go the hospital, there are states with testing. The hospital will test for other COMMON respiratory viruses (RSV, Flu) and bacteria infections (Strep) that can cause similar symptoms. If tested negative and travel or contact precautions match, the hospital will likely have masks for patients, and if not will likely place likely candidates in an airborne isolation room (It’s a room specifically designed to control airborne droplets) until coronovirus testing can be done. Here in Louisian OPH state lab will be doing Coronovirus screening
Major Major Major Major
This seems like a good place to drop this delightful alternative to humming ‘happy birthday’.
Luciamia
So much emphasis on our hands re/washing , disinfecting. Instead of worrying about race masks, would it make any sense to wear latex gloves when you’re ot. Ones that can be peeled off and disposed.
Ruckus
@debbie:
No, it means that if you get your hands dirty with oils, and so on at work, like I do in a machine shop, you have to scrub even harder to get them clean because everything you touch doesn’t sit on top of the natural oils, it enters the pores of the skin. Oh wait is that what happens with the viruses, germs, bacteria that we all run across every day? Why yes, yes it does.
chris
Grand Princess?
joel hanes
@NotMax:
Interesting. I guess I had it wrong.
I knew soap did not usually kill viruses, but I had thought that most infectious bacteria have a cell membrane (their “skin”) composed of a “lipid bilayer” — sort of a double-layer bubble of grease. My microbiologist housemate in college told me that soap worked on that lipid bilayer in much the same way that it works on food grease, breaking up the film and suspending bits of it in the lather — so that bacteria are actually killed because they lose their cell membrane and their fluids and organelles spill out.
Fungi have chitin in their cell walls, so they, I think, are not susceptible.
Now to go google and learn more.
Ruckus
@ziggy:
It’s hard to believe but the number of people as demented or even worse as the orange moron is greater than one.
SiubhanDuinne
@Roger Moore:
For some reason, I keep thinking of King Cnut and the tides.
Feathers
@zhena gogolia: the assumption is that as part of the treatment, you will be given the masks you need if you were going to be returning home.
There was an interesting article about a man in South Korea with Covid-19 who returned home to the apartment he shared with his elderly mother and did not infect her while he was ill. It was basically maintaining dirty and clean rooms. She did not enter his room, which was dirty . He wore mask and gloves in the clean areas. She stayed in her room while he was in the shared space and he cleaned/disinfected anything he had contact with before returning to his room. Good son! And good to know how to manage home quarantine.
joel hanes
@Luciamia:
If you’re exposed to aerial droplets from an infected person, wearing a face mask yourself is not very effective at protecting you from getting infected, even if it’s the right kind of face mask, which most of the cheap ones definitely are not.
Face masks are somewhat effective, when worn by the infected, at reducing the infection of others, because they prevent the creation of most of those aerial droplets.
Ken
Now I’m imagining this:
inscribed on a granite slab, over the lines
HOMO SAPIENS
500,000 BC – 2020 AD
Luciamia
@SiubhanDuinne: Funny thing is, Cnute didn’t believe he could stop the tide, he staged it to embarrass his toadying courtiers
Ruckus
@chris:
Mike Dense in charge of making sure only the wrong people die. This will work out well won’t it?
Major Major Major Major
I just can’t square statements like this with the fact that healthcare workers wear them to prevent infection.
Luciamia
@joel hanes: Righ but I was talking about the effectiveness of disposable latex gloves.
joel hanes
@joel hanes:
This is the answer I thought I understood.
biology.stackexchange.com/questions/39894/can-general-soap-kill-bacteria
joel hanes
@Major Major Major Major:
Healthcare workers are trained to wear them correctly.
Major Major Major Major
@joel hanes: then public health people should say “please don’t buy them because we need them and they require training”, not “these don’t work, you idiot, and also we need them even though they don’t work.”
(I know, #notallpublichealthpeople)
chris
@Ruckus: Oh, yeah! It’s hard to see the game plan here. Why would they want to kill off the Fox news audience/Trump voters?
joel hanes
@Luciamia:
Sorry for having misunderstood.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
Ridiculous but completely serious question: someone left a bottle of absinthe at my house a while back. I loathe the stuff and will never drink it. It’s 68% alcohol (136 proof). Can I use it to wipe down surfaces to clean them?
hitchhiker
@Feathers:
mr hitchhiker and I just moved together into a 650 sq ft apt in Seattle, because we’re building a house, it’s taking longer (even!) than our most pessimistic plans, our building mgrs raised the rent on our previous apt by $800/month, and we thought, what the hell.
so … 1 bedroom, 1 very small “parlor”, a kitchen area in the same space as the parlor, and a bathroom. it’s me, him, a 70# dog, 2 cats, and a bunch of guitars.
we’re both over 60, and he’s disabled (uses a wheelchair part of the time).
if one of us gets this, there is no “clean room.”
i’m starting to worry for real.
Chris T.
@joel hanes: The phospholipid bilayer can be punctured or otherwise destroyed, but it’s pretty tough. Your own cells also use a phosopholipid bilayer to contain their goodies. Soap alone won’t hurt them, which is good, otherwise we’d all dissolve in the showers…
edited: I confused the ol’ phospholipid bilayer (which we and bacteria both have in cells) with the cell wall that bacteria have, that we don’t. (We have an extracellular matrix to hold us together.) (added by water girl after seeing comment #90)
Gravenstone
@Luciamia: Something to keep in mind about disposable gloves, if they become contaminated then you will be carrying that contamination around until you dispose of them. The trick there is how to do so safely. Because otherwise you’re just spreading that contamination around, potentially to people who are in no way expecting it and are themselves likely unprotected as a result. At work, we have a dedicated process for handling contaminated PPE. That’s unlikely to be the case for most people in day to day life.
SiubhanDuinne
@Luciamia: Oh, I know. But the story still keeps popping into my head. I didn’t mean to imply a parallel (although I fear that’s exactly what I did!)
zhena gogolia
@lamh36:
Thanks!
Chris T.
@Chris T.: Damn, missed edit window.
I confused the ol’ phospholipid bilayer (which we and bacteria both have in cells) with the cell wall that bacteria have, that we don’t. (We have an extracellular matrix to hold us together.)
(Apparently, per your followup link to the biology stackexchange site, soap does eventually degrade this as well, but we tend to have plenty of excess surface.)
NotMax
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
Cannot resist saying that truly would be wormwood scrubs.
:)
Seriously, why not give to a friend who will appreciate it? Stuff isn’t exactly cheap to purchase.
RSA
And “our entire community” clearly doesn’t mean any sort of official safety net. That would be socialism, right? I expect an uptick in GoFundMe and other requests for charity.
Fair Economist
@PsiFighter37:
Every airline will be facing bankruptcy soon. Passenger counts are down 75% in some areas of Europe now and will soon be like that everywhere in North America as well. No business survives that kind of revenue loss without help.
Adam L Silverman
@hitchhiker: If you were in Florida this would be:
scribbler
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice:
I would never drink it straight, but it’s a key ingredient in some fantastic cocktails, including my favorite, a Corpse Reviver #2.
Fair Economist
Trump’s statement about “keeping the numbers down” is another signal of his advancing dementia. People *think about* nefarious ideas like that, and sociopaths like Trump try to figure out ways to accomplish them, but if their brains are still working correctly, they don’t say that out loud.
hitchhiker
@Adam L Silverman:
correct.
why i don’t live in florida.
Duane
@Fair Economist: Today Larry Kudlow sobered up and was talking about an economic stimulus, i.e. cash for employees and the employers who will lose money because of the coronavirus. Looks like we’re all Keynesians now!
Sab
@lamh36: Thank you.
@Luciamia: Just don’t touch your face with those gloves.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@NotMax:
@scribbler:
Hmmm, good points. I have asked around a bit and no one wants the absinthe – even the friend who brought it as a curiosity didn’t like it. The Corpse Reviver sounds intriguing, but given that you just rinse the class with absinthe, I or someone would have to drink one hell of a lot of them to use up this big bottle.
NotMax
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
Bring it along to the next B-J Meet-up and pass it on.
;)
I would also imagine it would leave any places you try to use it on sticky, and could conceivably damage some surfaces.
chopper
@Mike J:
man fuck that shit. inslee is doing seriously solid work in spite of a complete lack of leadership on the federal level.
A Ghost To Most
It turns out that covid-19 was an uninvited guest at the AIPAC conference, and all the old pols are shitting bricks, wondering if their number is up.
opiejeanne
@lamh36: Today Trump called Governor Jay Inslee of Washington state, a snake.
I am so damned offended right now.
opiejeanne
@Poe Larity: Yes, Abruzzo just verified that they have case(s) of the virus there.
ziggy
@opiejeanne:
I can’t get offended anymore. He is cuckoo for cocoa puffs, and getting rapidly worse. I’m sure the stress of the last couple weeks isn’t helping. He wet his pants today at the CDC and everything he said was totally ridiculous and garbled. FSM help us, we need a true leader and we have a malevolent dementia patient.
Bill Arnold
@A Ghost To Most:
Yes: AIPAC says two people at DC conference attended by Pence and others have tested positive for coronavirus (Jeanine Santucci, Mar 6, 2020)
opiejeanne
@ziggy: You mean he wet his pants, figuratively? Or did he really wet his pants?
opiejeanne
@Bill Arnold: Maybe Pence should be quarantined.
My husband just suggested that Trump be quarantined as well.
CaseyL
@opiejeanne: Together. Two men enter and, with any luck, neither of them leaves.
I work for UW Medicine, and I tick two of the higher-risk boxes. So I’ll be working from home next week. Since one of my jobs is Receptionist, this should be interesting. (I’ve forwarded my work phone to my personal cell.)
Coming home tonight was damn near eerie.
UW Medicine is more or less divided into two parts: the Medical Center and the Health Sciences/School of Medicine. I work in the latter area – and by afternoon, there was less than one quarter the usual number of people in the hallways, offices, elevators, and cafeteria. (The Medical Center also looked less busy than usual, but not nearly as much.)
The bus was also mostly empty. There’s maybe half the usual car traffic. I got home in record time, since we hardly had to stop.
Starting Monday, all University classes will be held online. The main campus will be damnear empty. The impact on the small businesses in the University District, particularly the eateries, could be devastating, depending on whether the students actually stay home when they’re not on the computer doing classwork.
A newspaper story about the thinned crowds everywhere quoted someone as saying it’s like Seattle 20 years ago. (I have to confess I kind of liked that: I used to adore this city, and hate how big and busy and crowded it’s become.)
It’s strange out there, and no one knows how long this will go on.
RobertDSC-Mac Mini
I imagine this is probably not going to be an answer I like, but I’ll ask anyway.
Is carrying a handkerchief for my extensive allergy-related nose blowing a bad thing in this C-19 climate?
CaseyL
@RobertDSC-Mac Mini: Yes, because you’re supposed to blow/sneeze into a tissue and then immediately dispose of the tissue. A handkerchief means you’re re-using, and retaining, something that could be full of virus.
RobertDSC-Mac Mini
@CaseyL:
OK. Thank you. I’ll make changes to my routine.
Uncle Cosmo
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: Give it to your (least) favorite MAGAt friend or relative. Because you know what they say: