But there's still the matter of the high fatality rate in Italy.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213065431

It's even higher than the WHO's predictive 3.4 FR.

I'm wondering if there are different strains in circulation.

I didn't think he'd last long at Rikers. Expect a suspicious "suicide attempt" any day now, or a self-inflicted injury he blames on a gang member.

see this as being a very good suggestion.

Surface Hours
Plastered wall 36
Formica (laminate material on counter tops) 36
Plastic 72
Stainless steel 72
Glass 96

https://qz.com/1810508/covid-19-can-likely-live-up-to-96-hours-on-your-phone/

Experts I've heard on Doctor Radio and other places say it probably can live on paper for hours to two or (at the extreme) three days.

Paper is extremely porous where as plastic is less permeable. That's one reason it's easier for detectives to get fingerprints off plastic longer after a crime and harder to get them off of paper (not impossible by any means, but a crapshoot.)

I'm not an expert but I hope they pay particular attention to the last four weeks, when the Bernie campaign seemed to spiral into the sewer, and what role if any figures like Nina Turner, Shaun King and Cenk played in the last-minute polarization of opinion (i.e., the implosion we are seeing in Michigan). Bloomberg's ad called attention to how some Bernie supporters were behaving, and it became a mainstream talking point.

Bernie's story of Joe is that he's "establishment" but I've been saying for months he's actually a classic American underdog because of how Trump has been beating up on him and Hunter and because of how he's fighting to restore America's dignity against a huge Trump machine. America loves an underdog. It's a Rocky movie. Of course, we need to wait until November to see how it ends.

Also, here's an interesting Tweet from yesterday afternoon.

https://twitter.com/DrDenaGrayson/status/1235674258858061825

Suddenly a lot of people who want Bernie to prevail are quoting screenwriter William Goldman, who famously wrote "Nobody knows anything." He was talking about a studio executive's inability to assess whether or not a treatment (idea) or screenplay would make a hit movie, a masterpiece or a bomb. That is true (or mostly true) in Hollywood, but it ain't true in presidential politics or many other areas of knowledge.

Ignorant people, or even people of reasonable intelligence who disagree with the prevailing opinions of experts, for some reason, absolutely love that particular William Goldman quote. Anti-vaxxers and climate change deniers probably love that quote too.

A Biden/Kamala Harris ticket (or Susan Rice), with Bloomberg and his audio/visual crew working on a parallel track, so Trump is getting hit from so many different directions at once he doesn't even know where to respond.

Even though Dr. Bill Wattenburg was a nasty talk show host, his background was in science and he talked quite a bit about what to do in the event of a pandemic (which he expected to happen). His advice might not apply to this current pandemic, which appears to move in fits and bursts--as opposed to sweeping through a community rapidly.

He said stay home for two weeks, don't open the door, don't gather with others and don't get the mail.

I'm thinking that operations like utilities, credit card companies are going to be just as vulnerable to this as individuals. They may have to halt operations too. They may have to suspend billing procedures or "work with" customers.

Their people may not be able to go to work either. We may even lose certain services for periods of time. So they may not send out bills during the worst periods, or move to a different/delayed billing cycle. In fact, they may not be able to provide services.

It's in the self-interest of companies to work with customers, because if they push it too far people will declare bankruptcy and monies owed to them will be rendered unrecoverable. (We are talking about a worst case scenario here, perhaps unlikely to happen). If the system of payments breaks down, it would destroy companies. The government could conceivably step in and order them to provide services if they threatened not to. The government could "pay" the utility provider to provide services for a certain period of time, in effect making a loan to the company and paying the bills of the population until things settle down. This wouldn't be easy on ordinary people, though, who would eventually have to scramble to pay these bills. A lot of people who have striven to stay debt-free might suddenly find themselves in debt due to circumstances beyond their control, but most of the country would be in the same position.

In China (and now Italy), this pandemic is hitting both supply and demand.