I think all of us are going through highs and lows, with more of the latter. I know I have been seeking out good news and sign of "light" to get me through the day.
I don't pretend that the situation isn't incredibly grim. However, the purpose of this thread is to give people a place for hope. Other threads is where the full scale and range of news will continue to be posted and discussed.
This is a different thread - it is one where people feeling low can go to find hope.
Things that can be included
- Positive news regarding advancements in vaccines and treatments
- Positive stories of how people are helping others in their time of need
- Ideas for how people can get through their day
- Encouraging news regarding countries seeing any green shoots in case volume, death rates or anything else
- Predictions on how and when this will come to an end
- Any other positive news
What will not be in this thread, and will be removed
- People shooting down any optimism
- Negative news/reports
- General arguing and combative behavior
I'm not trying to shine a turd here. I'm trying to give folks a place where they can find hope. Even if for a moment.
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Positive news is that I really enjoy working from home, I am just as productive (if not more because I have less wasteful in-person meetings), can do more with my days as I save commuting times and so forth. I have both a desktop and a laptop, so when I go in my kitchen to cook, or when I want to chill on my couch instead, I bring my laptop to review things / dial into meetings at times etc.
I go for bike rides or runs still during my lunch hour (live in Vancouver, work in pipelines) and overall, it's been good. I think once this blows over, I'll ask to work remotely more often and only come in for critical in-person meetings.
Due to the nature of my career, we can neither shut down nor can I work from home.
But I’m currently healthy and more importantly so are my children. I’m gifted with being mentally strong and blessed to be employed. Back on tour tmrw!
They couldn’t flood us out in 2013, and they won’t infect us out here in 2020.
We got this, everyone.
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My mom lives alone and for the time being she's not in her home. I went there to get her some things and the neighbours had left a note on her door. I'm paraphrasing, but it was very sweet and basically said "we're here for you in these times and if there's anything you need or any help you need, just let us know!"
It was really touching for my mom and while that's a super simple gesture, of you have elderly neighbours take a minute and check in on them.
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Long post, but this came in from the Alberta Roadbuilders. It's good news.
NSFW for length. It's fine to open.
NSFW!
Dear ARHCA Members,
I write to update you on the discussions ARHCA is having with senior Alberta Transportation officials including the Deputy Minister and the Assistant Deputy Ministers responsible for Construction and Maintenance Delivery, Planning, Finance and Technical Standards Division, and the Executive Director for Procurement.
I also just participated in a conference call with Premier Kenney, several Cabinet Ministers including Minister McIver, and industry association leaders from energy, construction and manufacturing.
The rapidly changing situation is challenging governments at all levels, in all countries, and continues to evolve. The actions being taken by our governments to respond to a Public Health Emergency are unprecedented in peacetime. I am hearing and observing that our Governments are very much aware that invoking emergency powers under the Public Health Act have deep economic and psychological effects. Government seems very aware of the anxiety their actions are causing for business, workers and families.
Premier Kenney said that there is no contemplation of a construction industry general shutdown and that he is not hearing of this from his colleagues in the other provinces. He reiterated that Alberta will be hard hit by the economic contraction in North America and Europe and that energy markets will be disrupted for a long time. He said that the focus of the Alberta Government is to provide immediate relief to individuals and businesses of all sizes. He said there is a stimulus package being prepared and that in the near term there will be additional spending on road construction over and above what was in the Budget that passed yesterday. More details on this will be forthcoming and expect that funding will also flow to municipalities for “shovel-ready” projects. I assured the Premier that Alberta has the capacity to deliver any amount and that open, fair, transparent competition is the most efficient procurement methodology.
With Alberta Transportation officials we have raised specific industry issues of:
indemnity language in contracts covering disruptions caused by public health actions or supply chain interruptions,
prompt payment to maintain cash flow in the industry,
restoring business confidence and normal business operations,
resumption of tendering,
available capacity in the industry and opportunities for stimulus spending.
The Deputy Minister committed to provide a statement to ARHCA and to the CEA regarding these issues so that we all have clarity. As soon as we receive this communication, I will forward it to you.
The diamond Princess cruise ship data is looking really promising
712 cases, 527 recovered, 7 dead, 14 critical.
Current Case death rate 1.3%. Worst case death rate 2.9%, Best case death rate 0.98%
This data probably has a 100% of cases including mild cases diagnosed and the demographics would skew older. It seems reasonable to assume a 1% death rate for the disease rather than the 3.4% case rate in the last flu report.
This is much better looking then the Chinese, Italian and US numbers and is inline with Korea.
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Positives: I love self isolating with my new fiancée
Negatives: home schooling the monkeys all day long
congrats on that!
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"You can't always write a chord ugly enough to say what you want to say, so sometimes you have to rely on a giraffe filled with whipped cream"
- Frank Zappa
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There are lots of drug therapies being tried now, and some are promising. If we can lessen the severity or mortality this allows is to better cope with the disease and our lives to return to normal. When this happens is totally unknown.
In addition, we can look to South Korea and China as two countries who have beaten this. So there’s a playbook. Most countries ignored that playbook until recently, but it’s not like we have to figure out how to solve this, just copy others. Not as easy to do in western society, but still possible. We will see in next 4-6 weeks how effective what they did is as they return to normal.
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I separated from my wife about six months ago. When the hammer dropped on sunday I moved in to her house (our old family home) with the kids and decided to use it as a base of operations for their home schooling and group quarantine.
It's day 4 and we are getting along great as a family. I'm actually quite happy.
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COVID-19 Good news and optimism thread
