I am in a high risk group, as is my wife, so we will be taking what precautions we can (we both have lung issues, and I have serious immune issues). Unfortunately she works at a restaurant (bad both in terms of potential exposure and in terms of the likelihood that she won't have a job in a week). My gaming has all been online anyways, so this won't really change anything for me in that respect (probably will have an easier time getting players). Where I live most people are taking the social distancing thing pretty seriously. People who can, are working from home. Though people still have to go to the store (lots of people are hoarding, which is creating a problem).

Quote from: Shasarak;1124504If they send them all into Hospital via the Rail Network then most of them will be recovered before they arrive.

That gave me a chuckle. Though to be fair, the max delay I ever had was maybe 45 minutes one morning on the way into London while our train was stopped so the authorities could deal with a dead body on the tracks.

Quote from: S'mon;1124506NHS is shit at the best of times. They're geared towards killing old people, not saving them.

Presumably you have BUPO to deal with your routine appointments and minor injury or illness. Though that's unlikely to be very useful during the pandemic.

Why do RPG forums have so many nutjobs on them? If it's not the far-left progressive loons on RPGnet, it's the far-right nativist nuts here. Maybe I live a sheltered life, but I don't encounter either in my regular life. Is it something about this hobby, or just the hobby forums?

Quote from: Haffrung;1124542Why do RPG forums have so many nutjobs on them? If it's not the far-left progressive loons on RPGnet, it's the far-right nativist nuts here. Maybe I live a sheltered life, but I don't encounter either in my regular life. Is it something about this hobby, or just the hobby forums?

Yeah we are all far right here.  I mean on the surface it is all propaganda like free speech, working hard, taking responsibility for yourself, having fun with your gaming but it does not take much to read between the lines and figure out what we are really like.

Quote from: Haffrung;1124542Why do RPG forums have so many nutjobs on them? If it's not the far-left progressive loons on RPGnet, it's the far-right nativist nuts here. Maybe I live a sheltered life, but I don't encounter either in my regular life. Is it something about this hobby, or just the hobby forums?

It's the geek social fallacies. You can explain the vast majority of weirdo geek shit with it.

http://www.plausiblydeniable.com/opinion/gsf.html

Quote from: Bren;1124530Presumably you have BUPO to deal with your routine appointments and minor injury or illness. Though that's unlikely to be very useful during the pandemic.

Ha. No, I pay my osteopath on the spot each month, and minor injuries & illness have to look after themselves. I buy my Viagra retail price at the chemist - although now I can't since the chemists are only letting in one person at a time and there are huge queues. My gf seems freaked out by the virus anyway so no nooky.

Here in Queensland, Australia I'm working from home.
As I'm a computer programmer, working from home doesn't really impact my job and what I can do, as I've been set up for remote access for a while now.

Local gaming clubs have cancelled physical gaming days, but some have moved online for gaming days using Discord and Roll 20.

Overall, apart from some people panic buying in shops, things are relatively calm, although Cafes, restaurants have been hit really hard.

Quote from: Haffrung;1124542Why do RPG forums have so many nutjobs on them? If it's not the far-left progressive loons on RPGnet, it's the far-right nativist nuts here. Maybe I live a sheltered life, but I don't encounter either in my regular life. Is it something about this hobby, or just the hobby forums?

Owning a firearm qualifies as far right for lots of people.  Or wanting a border (nativist).  I suspect the people discuss that online because the political climate being as it is you can labeled pretty fast in a workplace and out of a job or lose friends in some cases.

I would add, given there were 3 million background checks last month, and the rate is faster now, especially in new york and california...seems that right wing craziness is catching.

I will also add, I have met actual far right wing nuts in real life, and i know a few actual social justice warriors in real life.  The most far right person more in passing training on the same mat, the lefties training with them and friends for years.

Quote from: Haffrung;1124542Why do RPG forums have so many nutjobs on them? If it's not the far-left progressive loons on RPGnet, it's the far-right nativist nuts here. Maybe I live a sheltered life, but I don't encounter either in my regular life. Is it something about this hobby, or just the hobby forums?

Social media seems to amplify extremes. Hobby forums being just one example of the effect.

Quote from: Shasarak;1124543Yeah we are all far right here.

He didn't say all. He said, "so many."

<-- Not Right Wing. Not ultra conservative. Not Left Wing. Not ultra liberal.

TOTALLY NUTS.

All the time.

Cruising LA's open highways has been great fun this week, and today the grand Governor of California announced we're gonna have 25.5 million Flu Manchu cases by May. By this weekend, the news will promise us an Extinction Level Event!

BTW, check out the photos of Spring Break 2020. GenZ isn't quaking in fear as ordered, so after all the beaches and bars are closed, the party will continue underground.

Quote from: ArrozConLeche;1124521You left out Italy. Maybe the ghost of Mussolini has been leaving a lot of Italians medically vulnerable, so let's cast a shadow of doubt over the fatalities and news coming out of there too.

If I didn't love "Toxic SocioCat" so much, I'd totally change my tag to "Shadow of Doubt"!!

Italy is a VERY interesting case.

Italy has the 2nd oldest population, right behind Japan, and a large number of Italy's elderly live with their families - aka, exposure via children and grandchildren in their home. What's going to be interesting in a couple years when the death data is broken down and we see how many of the dead elderly had Alzheimers. Alzheimers has a bizarrely bad relationship with pneumonia. According to ALZ.org, Italy has 1M with Alzheimers.

Quote from: estar;1124439

• With Covid-19 which has no vaccine at this point, my town can expect 900 deaths probably spread across three months or so. In addition it can expect 9,000 severe case requiring medical intervention like hospitalization.

Estar, you are a good guy working with bad math, and that's not your fault. Everyone's working with bad math.

John P.A. Ioannidis is a professor of medicine, of epidemiology and population health, of biomedical data science, and of statistics at Stanford University and co-director of Stanford's Meta-Research Innovation Center.  

Check out his thoughts on the Kung Flu.
https://www.statnews.com/2020/03/17/a-fiasco-in-the-making-as-the-coronavirus-pandemic-takes-hold-we-are-making-decisions-without-reliable-data/

From
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6912e2.htm#F1_down
[ATTACH=CONFIG]4216[/ATTACH]

Did you miss watching Fox News lately. You are quoting the now disavowed party line on the Trumpandemic.

Quote from: Spinachcat;1124617https://www.statnews.com/2020/03/17/a-fiasco-in-the-making-as-the-coronavirus-pandemic-takes-hold-we-are-making-decisions-without-reliable-data/

Statistician complains about making decisions without better data. He then goes on to speculate wildly without any data. Yeah, we should definitely pay attention to that guy. :rolleyes:

It's not a news flash that we lack essential data. That's a direct result of the extremely low levels of testing here in the US. Which is a result of two things. First, the administration's failure to use the time in January, February, and early March to provide the means to do testing in the US. We could have been testing in January, but the administration decided to wait to develop a different test here. And second, the feverish conspiracy theories and lies of right wing nutjobs and propagandists abetted by the decline in rationality, data-driven decision making, and in expert opinion that has people listening to someone like Tucker Carlson instead of Anthony Faucci.

But back to the actual topic of the thread. The D&D group tried running things online last Tuesday, but trying to get everyone connected at the same time was an hours-long comedy of errors switching back and forth between Roll20, Discord, and Google Hangouts that stressed the DM to the point that once we finally all got connected in Google Hangouts, he was too exhausted to run. But we seem to have things sorted for next Tuesday. As they say, "cross the fingers."

On the plus side, it did force me to start learning how to use Roll20 which I might be able to add in to the group I run over Skype on Saturday.