Episode 233 talks coronavirus prep, the harsh Democratic debate in South Carolina, and three awesome shows. Win McNamee / Getty Images

Comments

1

Yeah, no need to rush out and buy up face masks.

2

Senator Elizabeth Warren gets my vote.

3

Eli, Klobuchar’s claim about the price of Bernie’s proposals was FALSE. For his proposals she used figures for the 10-year costs ($60 trillion total) as opposed to only one year of the economy/GDP ($20 trillion).

4

A vote for Sanders is a vote for Trump.

5

Also, Hillary WILL
N O T
LOSE TO tRUMP.

6

I'm voting for whoever the dems nominate. If that's Bernie, so be it. I sincerely doubt he can beat Trump but in terms of the math involved, the only way Trump will lose is if the majority votes for the dem nominee.

7

And again this week we see results from a key state: this one being Pennsylvania, showing that only Sanders beat Trump head to head.

10

Do folks at The Stranger read books anymore or only watch TV shows?

11

I live in S. Korea and we have been being affected by Covid-19 since the beginning of February. I have to say that your disaster prep is really bad in this episode. This virus isn't an earthquake, tornado, or winter storm. It will not cut off "essential services" other than medical care. The stores will not run out of food, the electricity and water will not get turned off. What it will do is fuck up all your plans, isolate you, slow everything down, and possibly cost the things you love a lot of money.

As you know, it will likely destroy your plans. Large events will be cancelled. If you're planning on buying tickets for anything in the next 3 months, make sure they're refundable. Do you have kids? You're going to be spending a lot more time with them as school is cancelled. Are you a teacher? You might have to start teaching online courses in the next few weeks or you might lose a month of summer break. Buildings or places might shut down suddenly because they need cleaning after having a contagious person visit there. All sorts of plans are going to be thrown out the window so you'll have to adjust and wait until the last minute to make plans for the time being.

You're going to be and feel isolated. If you can work from home, you will and you'll be tired of being home (especially if you have kids). If you have to go to work, expect more distance from people. Does being online make you depressed (regardless if you're an addict), then you'll become more depressed. One pro-tip to remember is to go outside. You're not going to catch this virus from bushes or trees, you only need to avoid people. Take a walk and get outside, you're not trapped at home.

Things will get slower. Deliveries will take even more time as more people shop online to avoid public places. Work projects will slow down as face to face communication is lessened, which means more wait time when you're the customer. More people will drive if they can to avoid public transit and commutes will go up.

Lastly, you might spend less money, but if you're in the service industry, you're going to lose money. Fewer people will be visiting restaurants, bars, coffee shops, etc. Tourism will be way down. Public transit will have reduced revenue and will need new money put into it. Community groups will be hard hit by cancelling events but being locked into venue contracts. If you have extra money think about what local groups you're going to want to give to.

Now, this isn't advice is just for what should be the public's immune response to stopping the covid-19 virus. God help us if it spreads to a significant portion of the population.

Lastly, it's really angering watching the US muck this up. Korea has completed 90,000 tests (16,000 tests just yesterday) and identified over 5,000 people with the disease. Korea has a death rate of 0.6% (31 deaths / 5,186 infected) right now, which is really low compared to other countries. This low percentage isn't because of better healthcare, but likely lead-time bias by identifying more cases faster. If you have 6 deaths, it's quite feasible you have (6/.006) 1,000 people infected. People should be demanding more testing at the state level. And people need to make specific demands like testing every person in the state hospitalized with pneumonia.

Some of the things Korea has done is: cover all medical expenses related to covid-19, tested all people hospitalized with pneumonia, delayed the school year by 3 weeks, automatically extended all visas to reduce congregation at immigration offices, and created drive-up testing locations to chances of it spreading in hospitals.

12

No one mentioned that not only is Lisa Bonet the mother of Zoe Kravitz, she was in the original High Fidelity! She and Cusack's character have a brief hookup. I had such a huge crush on her, probably from watching that film half a hundred times as a teenager. Hell, I still do, but Jason Momoa is her husband now, and she definitely ain't leaving him for me.

The original film also has Jack Black at his music-nerdiest, and Tim Robbins as a smug, patchouli oil-soaked yuppie. Joan Cusack is her typical amazing self, playing Rob's aghast friend Liz. Other than the presence of tape decks, the movie still holds up pretty well, in my opinion.

@11: All good points. Another economic impact is that a lot of goods manufactured in Asia - like electronics - are likely about to get a lot more expensive here, as supply dries up.


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