Comments by theDirkDiggler (page 4)

100-200 thousand dead just in the US is considered a best case scenario and i believe it. The only thing that could stop that is vast immediate improvement in care and treatment, which is unlikely (certainly in the immediate future) because it very difficult to treat patients and do research at the same time. Research that is also constrained by red tape that will not go away, and for many valid reasons. But seeing how many if not most Americans are taking the crisis right now, i would say that 500k+ deaths is very possible if not even probable. Still less than the 2+ million that would supposedly occur from doing "nothing". Now for people that think that 500k deaths isn't a big deal, consider that is roughly the amount of Americans that died in combat from every single American war combined of which the vast majority are from World War II and the Civil War. All of those deaths took years to accumulate not weeks. In just a few weeks, we will be seeing around 2k+ additional deaths every day for months, just in the US. And don't think i want this to happen. But there is just this sense of inevitability at this point. 2k+ deaths a day is the equivalent of a Pearl Harbor or 9/11 every day. But somehow that seems normal. You can cynically or heartless say that 80+% of them are just old people that already had a foot in the grave, so we're just easing the inevitable burden on healthcare and social security ahead of time. That's seriously messed up. What about the other 100k+ that still had much left to live for? And this is for a moderate case scenario. Not the worst ones that would happen if the laissez faire crowd (although that crowd is getting much smaller by the day) have their way...

Welp, Trump just extended the "guideline" to April 30. So maybe Mother's day is the new "target"? I think once Florida and Texas shut down very soon, that will be it and every other state will probably do the same. Unfortunately, they'll be weeks too late, especially Florida (with all those spring breakers spreading the virus around the state and country and they only closed Disney World a little over two weeks ago, so you'll start seeing the effects of that pretty soon), to avoid becoming like New York, which will probably end up with around 5k+ dead just in NYC. I mean Florida might just become Italy version 2 (similar demographics and late reaction). Or version 3 if Spain becomes Italy v.2.

They'll probably have to files taxes for 2019 as an IC having received 1099s, which means that the clubs were supposed to file 1099s as well, or maybe even PLs. Honestly, i have no idea how strippers legally file taxes as an IC...

I think the stimulus actually covers them (and porn stars and legal brothel workers); certainly the ones that filed any taxes. But even the ones that didn't, i believe can still get that $600 a week for the next 4 months...

Yeah not closing schools was terribly foolish consider what a vector for the disease children, particularly young children, are, being almost always asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic with the disease.

So... In other words, as bad as this crisis looks, it "might" not be quite that bad? Okay, got it...

@RandomMember The lethalness of Covid-19 is only similar to the flu in overall rate, but potentially 10-50 times as deadly in total deaths in a shorter period of time as it seems about 10x-50x as prevalent as the flu. That's not even factoring triage, where everyone that can be saved is saved. A lot of Covid-19 critical patients will just be given up on before they could survive. But the biggest difference between Covid-19 and the flu is not the rate or even the sheer number of dying. It's the huge number of long term hospitalizations for a disease with no cure or no effective treatment. People that get hospitalized with the flu and pneumonia are often treated and cured or resolved long before they reach the ICU. A large number of Covid-19 patients just end up going from ER or general to ICU and just stay there until life support is ended as the ICUs get overwhelmed and then if they die, they die. If you want to see what happens if even 1% of Americans end up going to the hospital for long stays in the ICU all at almost the same time, (i don't even think all the ICU's in the country can accommodate even 1 million patients let alone 3 million only for one condition), that is the situation that could be absolutely catastrophic.

^ What's the major source for New York's outbreak? If Italy and Spain's outbreak can be traced to a soccer match and that wouldn't even need hugging, but a lot of shared airspace and breathing (aerosolization) between fans, i feel badly for New Orleans with Mardi Gras, especially since that is also a very local event and the future outbreaks in Florida from spring break revelers that haven't social distanced when they came back. In that case, i also wonder if major outbreaks can be traced to places that have large packed sports arenas (NBA/NHL).

^ Oh, so like the Chinese method of color coding. Well, unfortunately, we're both too late in terms of response and testing to do that (find out where the levels of infection are and track them probably by GPS on smartphones) which will now take weeks, and too early in terms of flattening the curve to go back to work without recurving the curve, which might take months.

About that town with "only" 50 cases that shut down the entire area. That was still just a reactive response and not a proactive one. But that's far better than waiting until someone died (many days behind) to shut things down. Paraphrasing what the well fed governor of my state said, let's hope it was an overreaction. Believe me, or don't believe me, but that would be the best case scenario for this disease. But as we're finding out, none of these reactions across the country or in the world even so far have been too early or too extreme. Remember when people though the NBA had overreacted by canceling the season? And now we're finding out about infections from players, coaches, fans and even a ref now in critical condition. Extreme as it was at the time, it was absolutely the right thing to do. People were complaining about why rich, young, asymptomatic healthy athletes were getting tested. Turns out, they need to isolate/quarantine all of them and their contacts and even their contacts' contacts which means just about everyone at this point.

^ I meant everywhere else is earlier in the curve compared to New York. How much earlier i'm not sure, but it's definitely not weeks. New Jersey might only be a couple days behind. Chicago a couple days behind them. Every second is critical at this point, and i'm not exaggerating...

Less than a freaking week ago, like RandomMember, i was very optimistic, even confident that things would blow over eventually. And yes, one way or another, this will pass and we will get through it. But what will that look like? All you need is eyes and common sense. Low cases only means low testing. As soon as 1 case is found, and especially after 1 death is confirmed, that means the dookie has already hit the fan. One percent infection has already happened and the disease will spread uncontrollably unless measures are taken. These cases that are being confirmed right now are in people that are already showing symptoms. Symptoms that can take weeks to appear as just the asymptomatic but still infectious incubation period alone can take more than two weeks and then symptoms only start to appear. How many other people do you think those even 50 cases (assuming that was all of them, which would be incorrect) in a rural area can infect? In New York, people are almost dying by the time they drag themselves to the hospital. The death rate has only been limited to a little more than 1% because it's only been a few days. As those 30,000+ in New York begin to recover (there are still almost 4,000 people still recovering in China, weeks and months after diagnosis, and a lot of them aren't going to make it as there are still handfuls of deaths every day still being reported there), a lot of them are going to die. That doesn't even factor the ones that simply run out of life-supporting equipment due to triage. And that number is nowhere near peaking yet so it's going to get way bigger. But that's New York, you might say. EVERYWHERE else in the country is different. No, everywhere else in the country is just later in the curve. The curve stays slow and low for a LONG time then it just explodes once it hits a critical number. Simple arithmetic (or algebra). If NOTHING is done, then every single city and town will be like New York. That is what we are seeing all across Italy and now Spain and now New York. And these are places that are doing SOMETHING. You do not want to know what doing NOTHING looks like.

@twentyfive If i wasn't addressing anyone, i was obviously talking to the OP or i guess not so obviously...

Also my "melodrama" was just the hypothetical scenario if people don't start getting very serious about this (and many are still not), and by serious, i mean being part of the solution (containing the disease) and not part of the problem (spreading the disease). Sadly, the way things are continuing to go now, it seems this hypothetical scenario (entire industries not coming back for many months if at all) has a real chance of happening...

Well you can stay in that large but emptying river in Egypt until you can't, but i know which side i would rather be on. But the longer it takes for everyone to get on the same page (or boat for this analogy), the sooner you can kiss any chance of this thing (and this thing i mean just the initial crisis stage) being over in only "a couple months"...

Anyway to answer your question, nope. I mean yes to watching more porn than usual and even that online strip club stage show that was posted was better than nothing, but i ain't paying a penny for cams, let alone dollars for a "private" show which you can still get for free (or at least someone else's private show). Just a completely different experience than what i want.

As the situation in Germany and the US worsens, i'm sorry to say that you probably won't be able to go for months if not the entire year...

It looks like the US has lost and just has to deal with that. Not for good or anything hopeless like that, but getting out of this even slightly unscathed is impossible. It's impossible because it wasn't taken seriously for too long and still isn't being taken seriously in much of the country. It's only going to get worse (New York is huge freaking canary in a gold mine right at home), if extreme measures aren't taken. And the longer action is delayed, the more extreme measures will have to be taken. This $2+ trillion stimulus bill was just one of them. It sounds extreme and overreaction, but now i think it might not be enough. The NFL is still conducting transactions as if there's going to be a season. They're deluded because they care about the money that will be lost and the fans care (somewhat at this point) about the game. The NBA and NHL season are gone. The MLB season is gone, but they're also deluded because they're thinking about money. Only Adam Silver seems to realize that the season is lost and has a clear head about it. The NFL season is probably gone, at least with live audiences, but even getting 100+ players and staff ready for a game is going to be extremely difficult. Unless the disease is completely eliminated (and there is a chance it can still happen, but it's going to require breakthroughs and very quick breakthroughs and implementation in testing) entire industries are going to be gone or basically gone for many months. Movies, gone. Dine in restaurants, gone. Gyms, gone. Hotels and travel, gone. They're not coming back until the disease is eliminated (like no new positive cases like in China). These are just the obvious industries. But any industry that deals with interacting with the public is likely gone or very culled. This is one of the very few times that a problem, national crisis really, can't be solved without government and big government intervention at all levels but especially at the Federal level because those laws restrict the lower levels. This is literally like a major war time (on home soil or a like a civil war even) event or effort with similar required sacrifice. There are going to have to be temporary restrictions on freedom and liberty. Just look at other democratic countries employing almost fascist methods to get people in line and definitely fascist methods like categorizing people by color codes. These are sadly likely necessary. There are countries engaging in spying and surveillance essentially through the use of smart phones to track the disease, which is likely necessary. Strangely the US has less smart phones per person than many other countries often poorer countries like China and South Korea so even this action won't be quite as effective, but it can greatly help in isolating the disease. Trump is so deluded right now, it's not even funny or sad. He's like the IOC in Japan that refused to believe that the Olympics wouldn't go on. No one else in the world is thinking about the freaking Olympics at a time like this and no one in the country is thinking about going back to work or the marketplace if they don't literally have to (only what is essential for personal and societal survival). If he keeps up this rhetoric, he's not just going to just anger Democrats and Independents, but his very own base.

Like it or not, the self-induced depression is already upon us. There is no way that GDP doesn't contract more than 20% the next few months and 30-50 million jobs are "lost". Ideology aside, we're all going to enjoy some good old fashioned socialism for the next few months...

^ The infection rate likely is 10x or more than the confirmed cases. There are still cases of people dying from pneumonia or similar ailments and those people of course are never diagnosed after they die, Why waste money as long as the cause was natural. Also there have been over 400k people tested and about 60k positives meaning that 1 out of 7 mostly sick people are testing positive. That's more than 15%. And there are a lot of mildly sypmtomatic people that haven't gotten tested. About half of the infected are either asymptomatic or presymptomatic so if even 1% of the country is positive, you have about 3.3 million cases RIGHT NOW.

People are STILL going out to social gatherings? Well, it's their funeral or hospital visit. Ignore the virus at their peril...

Do you live under a rock? The Senate just passed that $2 trillion stimulus bill with $375+ billion earmarked for small businesses affected by Covid-19, Unemployment benefits have been expanded by $600 a week for the first 4 months. $1,200 checks will be sent to every adult with a SS number or TID number. $500 for children. The Democratic run House is guaranteed to pass it with even more benefits added on to it. I triple dog dare Trump to veto it or to even sit on it for more than an hour. This lock down is only about a week old. Less than that in some areas and not even in effect in many states. How are people going to go bankrupt that quickly? Most people get paid every week or every two weeks. They can wait it out a little longer without any "real" damage yet...

I'm not sure what the OP is really saying or thinking. So we should do what Trump is suggesting and "reopen" things? As the national shutdown continues and as the hospitalizations and deaths skyrocket (as was predicted regardless of what happened), people are going to be more scared in general of going out for anything. Let's say that somehow Trump ends the shutdown and "mandates" that everything has to re-open. Forget that he can't really do that. All businesses have to rehire everyone back regardless of how much they're losing. No one gets unemployment benefits if they have the opportunity to work at their restored job but refuse to do so. So with that invisible pitchfork poking the ass of working Americans, the economy is turned on again and if people die, people die. Well, only a small percentage, initially at least. Do you really think the masses are going to go shopping just like before? Go out to eat? Go to movies? Travel by plane after waiting hours in an airport with people from everywhere around the world? Start booking hotel rooms for whatever? Hell no. Only the people that don't give a shit are going to support the economy. The vast majority will be too chicken shit to risk dying or getting seriously sick. And i bet all those old taking heads talking about sacrificing themselves for the economy won't be in that first group of supporting the economy. It'll only be a matter of days before everyone realizes what's going on and stop supporting the economy completely. Meanwhile, the virus spreads like wild fire but still doesn't reach herd immunity numbers because a lot of people are still voluntary isolating and for good reason. Meanwhile, the severely sick and dying are exponentially increasing, completely overrunning the hospitals because they still don't have enough ventilators and respirators and beds and even the nurses and doctors are also getting sick and don't forget all about all the other sick and critical patients that don't have Covid-19. Millions of hospitalizations that are compromised by the overrun and understaffed and underprepared medical system. Forget about getting anything routine or preventive done and who would risk going to an environment like that anyway, but that will lead to a sicker population. Meanwhile, there are seniors and elderly dying in nursing homes and even residential homes because they couldn't or wouldn't get to a crowded hospital. Not all of these cases are Covid-19, but the many other myriad of comorbidities that the very old often have and will get. Before you know it you've got rotting corpses across the country and people are just scared to move them and now you have a major health and environmental hazard that was unnecessary. People are still hoarding essential food and supplies and now you have major civil unrest and are on the brink of civil war and a real life virus apocalypse. Armed citizens will just burgle and steal stuff now if they can't buy it. This isn't months from now. This could all start happening in a matter of weeks or even days, well before any actual bankruptcies and home foreclosures or complete stock market crashes. This is mostly all an exaggeration, and thankfully it's moot anyway, since Trump can't just unilaterally reopen the economy. Since we've already gone in this direction, we might as well go all in. Half measures won't do anything in either direction and full measures are impossible in the other direction (reopening economy). And we've already seen that it can be done and it has worked. It would be best just to do what other countries have already done (China, South Korea) in a couple months and try to do it better. Those countries didn't fall into mass poverty and hardship and suicides. They'll recover. Slowly, but they will, at least until the next crisis or second and third wave of coronavirus pandemics. Since every state has some autonomy in how they decide to go about it, we'll soon be able to see who has the better approach. I would wager my entire stimulus check that every single state is going to fall in line and fall hardcore and Trump and those talking heads are just going to sound more crazy if they keep it up.

Now that i think of it, most decent sized clubs have a few hundred girls working there, even if they might only work a couple days a month or take weeks off at a time. But to suddenly have no schedule for however long this goes on means hundreds of thousands of strippers out of work, not including all the other club workers (servers, bartenders, bouncers, door girls, managers, etc.). That's a devastating affect on the general economy from just one industry. At least restaurants and hotels keep some if not most of their staff employed...

I guess that makes sense. I wonder how many of these girls also cam...