Can someone explain the reason for a Covid surcharge? Or more precisely, calling out a specific charge on a bill beyond the price?

Here's a crazy idea - just raise your effin' prices!

Why piss people off by saying "This service/food costs X, and in addition to tax and tip, you owe us Y more because Covid has hurt our business." Covid has hurt everyone! Just charge what you need to stay in business and if it's more than people want to pay, they will go elsewhere.

This is one of those things where I feel like business owners are going out of their way to chase off customers.

lol That's okay.

As for the map, it should be free access. The Times has a lot of COVID coverage available for free.

I guess we have enough data to conclude the coronavirus is not as infectious (I think) but is much deadlier than the flu.

Coronavirus Disease 2019 vs. the Flu | Johns Hopkins Medicine

But flu leads in infections.

The Fight Club solution to this problem is to subtract the COVID surcharge from your tip so that you accomplish:

1. Making the employee subconsciously hostile toward their employer (or more hostile, depending on how they feel about working through a pandemic in the first place), and
2. If you depress tip income enough, then the employer has to pay actual minimum wage instead of $2 and change per hour, thus negatively impacting their bottom line.

I'm not saying it's a good solution, but Tyler Durden would approve.

My guess is that a Covid surcharge sounds less permanent.

I probably need to learn how to take care of leather (or faux or whatever it is) as I generally just leave it in my car so I never forget it.

That political thread is really not about the coronavirus. Its just to give many in this forum yet another thread to endlessly, repetitively wail among themselves about Trump. Admittedly Trump deserves much of the complaints but another one? So ironically, that thread is misnamed and should be called "yet another Trump bashing thread superficially related to the coronavirus".

This thread is called the Wuhan coronavirus because that's actually what NYT called it (see post #1) when I first created it. I don't think anyone would have called NYT "racist" then. I guess it can be renamed now to be "politically correct" but there's a sense of satisfaction in reminding & placing blame on this world wide calamity where it belongs.

It's hard out there for a pimp.

I don't have good context (maybe someone from UK can help out) but apparently there is mask-wearing issue there too. Don't get the big deal in wearing masks (now that we have plenty of them).

How masks became a fault line in Britain’s culture war - POLITICO

This Sacramento woman was extremely "pissed off" about the mandatory mask requirement in California (pun intended).

Woman Urinates On Floor After Refusing To Leave Verizon Store For Not Wearing Mask

No ;)

Flu "leads in infections" because nobody tries to avoid it and essentially nothing is done to curb it's spread. (Plus summer v winter shaping behaviour and thus spread. As bad as SarsCov2 spread, it would have been much worse had it hit in October). If everybody behaved the same and everything was business as usual SarsCov2 is judged to be much more infectious by every scientist and medical professional you'll ask this question.
It's like saying a bottom feeder team scoring more points against a group of amateurs is better offensively than one scoring less against the sports best defense. Data without context is useless.

If everybody behaved like today during flu season and certain measures stayed in place, there would hardly be a flu season to speak of. And there actually is a seasonal effect and this still accelerates. Winter could be hell, especially if 'stationary' mass events indoors make a comeback and also if Entertainment and socialising moves back largely indoors.

Okay, I get this.

Do you know what is the latest thinking in coronavirus vs flu r0?

There is apparently a lot of people (40,000+) stuck out at sea like cruise, merchant ship crews that were scheduled to be rotated out but now can't (or company won't).

There's obviously a lot that I'm not aware of ...

I get being stuck during the initial 2-3 months of confusion but you would think all crew members now had a chance to be tested, ships decontaminated etc. and, at the very least, crews rotated out for fresh crews that need to make some money.

Captain Stubing & Julie, we forgot about you.

I think if I was young and single I'd still have lots of fun being quarantined on a cruise ship but I feel for the others in less luxurious accommodations, food & limited entertainment.

They are comparing estimated cases to confirmed cases. That's no way to go through life.

Yeah, that as well of course. Same as flu deaths being the total of all excess deaths which in Winter can have more reasons than just flu.

But first and foremost it is just not a fair comparison given the actual playing field.


I don't think R0 as such is a usefull number and can't actually be pinpointed as such. It is thought that actual working R for average influenza virus cocktail (not 1 Virus) in normal 'western' conditions as far as behaviour, living/working situations and climate/weather is roughly between 1.3-1.5 as an average.

Now with SarsCov2 there is a super short window of it even 'meeting' normal behaviour, a few weeks in china and maybe a few more in Italy/Spain/New York etc. And even then behaviour had already subtly altered. And during that brief window, no one kept track or had Surveilance up (as we do for flu via a variety of sampling techniques and data from doctors visits etc). So it is near impossible to pinpoint, but best guess remains 3 or higher (germany estimated at 3 at it's highest and behaviour was already altered then) with the absolute R0 in Wuhan (before anybody knew it existed, so zero change in behaviour from anybody) estimated as high as 5.7.

What we do know is that Flu season in some countries ended super sudden (Germany routinely has it in season until the end of march, this year went from still 50% of peak to almost zero in a week) and in the southern hemisphere it has not taken hold early on. Again the peaks differ between countries (f.e. around Years End for the US, likely due to significant early travel from south to north hemisphere) but South Africa or Australia have had it almost nonexistant in the first stage:

https://globalnews.ca/news/6999217/c...n-flu-rsv/amp/


(Confirmed cases is a snapshot, there is hardly any flu testing compared to what is done with Covid19. But testing is done representatively, so comparable year to year)

And again, i am no expert at all. Only interested in it, stumbling on lots at work (have to regularly check a ton of websites in scientific fields) and know a few people that have to stay in the loop due to their vocations.

And one worry on everybodys mind is what happens if regulations are relaxed to the point when flu becomes a factor:

What happens when flu meets Covid-19? | Society | The Guardian

Oh great, another term to learn "co-infection"

I do need to say this; I was dead, stinking, no-holds-barred, 100% wrong on how much risk people would be willing to take pre-vaccine. Restaurants are booming even at 50% capacity. Ones that were seeing stagnant/declining business pre-virus scare are now seeing 20% growth consistently year-over-year.

I thought people would be a lot more skittish. I was way off the mark.

TBH, whenever I've gone to pickup the restaurants don't look that busy and don't see that many eating in (not even close 50%).

I was skittish but I've been told the risk to catch it via food is low.

So the boy and I went flying this morning. A very big deal. It's his first flight since he got his private pilot's license, and the very first time that the two of us flew together, just him and I. We went up to Urbana, Ohio, they have a little airport cafe, the good ol' $100 Hamburger, except in this case, it's the $350 breakfast and pie.

Pulled up, parked the plane, kind of busy outside, but it's hot, head in. I swear to god, that it was business as usual in there. There was a sign outside that said, sit 6ft apart outside, but inside it was basically full. No masks anywhere on workers. No tables blocked off. Every table used. Even more surprising, most of the people in there were older, or elderly. It was like a Sunday morning, post church crowd, and nobody really seemed to mind. Things in Cincy at least look like places are trying to make an effort, and restaurants here are all doing the same thing, some better than others, but this was otherworldly.

It's not catching it via food that is the issue, it's being indoors with other people for a prolonged period of time, some of it (necessarily) without your mask on.

This is a similar misunderstanding about masks - you're not wearing it to save yourself. That's a lesser, secondary benefit.

I've been somewhat surprised by what looks to be semi-full parking lots, but the only time I've gone in is if they require it for carry-out (as opposed to curbside). Eating in a restaurant just isn't that important for me to chance it. Carry-out works just fine. If things get better and in a few months when temps are in the 60s/70s, I'll likely be good to sit outside at a restaurant.Otherwise, I'm staying away.

Yeah, I get this but it wasn't that long ago that we were wondering if you can catch it from restaurant food. The consensus now is relatively low risk.

Congrats on your son's milestone.

Do you own a prop (I assume) or just rent one?

Rented. Plane ownership is not in the budget at all.

I’m just wrapping up a 12 day Disney trip. I know I’m weird, but we had this one planned for awhile. It was our twentieth anniversary. I have to say I’m pleasantly surprised at how Disney has done it. Masks everywhere. Sanitizer everywhere. Cleaning workers are all over. Wiping rides, hand rails etc. no tables open within 6 feet of each other. Plexiglass shields in ride lines, buses, boats. Today they implemented you can’t eat and walk (for like food stands) So if you move, you mask.


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Were lines really short?

Where did you stay? How full was it? Did you have to move from your originally booked hotel?

How did they do the parades?

Hey, we just drove through Urbana about an hour ago.

Also, I still don’t understand people who don’t know how to wear masks. We were at a church function where they were mandatory; at least three people had them down under their nose. One was one of those round masks like you wear if you are sanding something. It had to be more uncomfortable to wear that under your nose. I just don’t get it.

(Damned mouth-breathers.)

COVID-19 - Wuhan Coronavirus (a non-political thread, see pg. 36 #1778)
 

We split stayed. Contemporary, Kidani, and Copper Creek.

No parades. Or fireworks. Every now and then a float with princesses or the characters will appear and drive down one of the streets.

Very very few people in the parks. You have to have a reservation to GET in the parks too. No fast passes. One park a day. But I think outside of the new Minnie/Mickey train ride in holllywood nothing was over 20 minutes.

Rise if the resistance was still a virtual que.


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Why in God's name would ANYONE be in Urbana, let alone two FOFC forum members? Urbana sucks

We really just went there for the pie.

They actually had some good restaurants there, small mom and pop places, but good. I used to have to drive that way for work.

Ok, technically drove by on I-70 on our way back from Purdue.

Oxford Phase 1/2 results are in and look very promising.

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/oxford...ry?id=71875583

https://marlin-prod.literatumonline....3620316044.pdf

Yeah but AstraZeneca is down 4%. Weird.

Georgia’s largest school district won’t have in-person start

I think that vaccine news has been so promising that the market has already priced in good news for the major players.

Plus they're starting to bet on a vaccine "winner" (who will be first, and who will be most profitable), rather than just one being found. Everyone but the winner is probably a little over-priced.

The University where I work is doing the same, including any faculty or staff going on campus.

You know, if we just stop trying to test, everyone will have chlamydia and soon we'll have herd immunity and we can go on about our business.

SLU and Washington U in St Louis looking for 3000 people to test a vaccine. They are looking for higher risk people.

I may volunteer. Going to call tomorrow and see how I can get involved.

My son's school is testing everyone as the come to campus, and will keep them in quarantine for 48 hours till the tests come back. If they test positive, they will be put in special housing to quarantine.

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We might do that, but if the testing isn't continuous it's more for show than anything else. A campus can't be locked down like the NBA bubble.

Yeah, they are testing weekly. They are using the Harvard-MIT test.

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This is pretty much the behavior that is keeping me away from church. In CA masks are required in public, but it wasn't enforced at church. A lot of folks take them off once they sit down. Many more kept them under their noses. I showed up one Sunday as a volunteer, but won't be back until this is over.

It just isn't worth the risk, nor the aggravation I feel.

And if they really were mouth breathers, they wouldn't need to pop their noses out.

Shit, Kroger supposedly has a mask policy, but they are just fine with employees wearing then wrong. Gonna say something like 40% of all mask wearers had them on wrong. It's really hard in Kentucky apparently.

The Kroger & Publix employees have been great with masks. Its the fast food ones that are suspect IMO.