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I hope all the CDC group stays safe! I'm out for awhile, find the ferocity of the debate rather exhausting. Would be nice to see more respect for different points of view rather than a need to prove each other wrong. Cheers all!

Not sure I can agree with your statement. They may not be as likely to die from COVID as an older person, but certainly at least some of them will have long lasting effects that will take a year or more to completely recover from if they recover at all. Even younger people who get COVID suffer significant lung and potentially other organ damage. For sure some have very few symptoms and it's nothing more than a flu or cold level illness, but not sure I'd want to roll the dice on which way it would affect me. I don't know if there are any stats yet that identify what the frequency of severe symptoms is. I'd rather avoid the illness entirely and not put that level of reliance on lady luck to the test. Nor do I want to infect anyone else that I might come in contact with. Am I panicked about it, absolutely not. I do however have a healthy respect for the potential outcomes and prefer to lean towards the best outcome if I can.

The challenge I think with comparative numbers is not knowing how/what each country is counting. Total number of cases may be different by country based on testing numbers, deaths may differ - I've seen reporting that indicates that not every country counts deaths in care homes, or deaths at home, only deaths in hospital. Apples to oranges comparisons, although I do believe that Canada is doing better than many countries and I have total confidence in the direction we are taking. I don't think anyone should expect that we sacrifice our elders for the good of the economy. While I don't have family, I have several friends who are over 70 and that's the demographic that I teach fitness to, my hope is that everyone that I care about is still alive at the end of this mess.

I wonder if the back to school initiative may be targeted at youth that are at risk - those who may not have technology or support at home to aid in online learning, may not have the support structure to thrive, may not have the food at home to survive? I think we all recognize that not every home represents the "leave it to Beaver model" of home life.

Could the uptick be in part due to the change in testing? I think we're now testing people who want a test as long as they are referred by a doctor? I thought we changed that recently from just testing more specifically? Could be a combination of all things I suppose. I go more by the hospitalization numbers to feel better/worse about how things are going as that number is a consistent measure. So far that number seems to be declining.

Not sure if there is a fair balance between the cost of tourism losses vs cost of another cycle of COVID-19 spreading, resulting in either more lockdown or causing increased demand on the healthcare system. I honestly don't believe we will see overseas or high volumes of US tourist traffic until there is a vaccine. Then travel will likely be allowed for people who can prove they have been vaccinated. I'm all for that.

I'm not sure why a closed border would be that problematic to the economy. Essential travel can still occur as it is today, recreational travel shouldn't occur, based on what is being discussed today there will be little allowance for recreational travel anyway. Screening for COVID symptoms doesn't do much given the assertions today that a significant portion of people with COVID are asymptomatic.

I've been golfing here in the LML for the past few weeks. Courses are doing a good job of providing for social distancing. No congregating before/after the game, one person at a time in the proshop, restaurant facilities are closed, constant reminders on the loudspeakers, course marshalls driving around and reinforcing on the course. After that like everywhere else its up to the individual. Have to say for me it's been a boon for my mental health as it's the only opportunity I have to have actual face to face conversations with people. I live alone and the social isolation can wear thin. The additional opportunity for exercise is good as well. Courses have removed any touchpoints like rakes, no touching the flag. In terms of risk I'd say it's pretty low, but can see where the optics may be problematic.

https://medium.com/swlh/misinformation-goes-viral-1aad951e4492 Found this article to be informative without some of the useless political bashing. Partial quote below: Self Isolation has led many to delve into crackpot theories that go from man-made viruses to spread of infections via 5G cell phone towers. Now, those that are rational are already asking the right questions and seeking legit sources of information…but more and more people are losing it. Feel free to use the information in this story to educate your friends. This pandemic is stressful enough without people confabulating nonsense! I’ve found that people “listen” more if you have credentials, so while I’m not a fan of throwing letters at people…here are mine. I have a PhD in Cellular and Molecular Medicine from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. I did my postdoctoral work at MIT and am now an Associate Professor of Neurobiology at the University of Utah . He goes on to discuss some of the theories and why they are not supported.

The local SaveOn stores here all have signs up at the entry restricting to one person per family. Not sure how much it's enforced but it certainly helps make the store less crowded. I know a friend of mine who is a cancer survivor goes grocery shopping with her husband, they split the list and reduce the time they are in the store, they also shop in the first hour when the store opens to try and avoid the crowds.

Most gyms closed voluntarily when the social distancing directives came down. I work at the Y in Surrey and they closed early on, as did the Club 16's and Steve Nash gyms. There may be a few very small yoga studios or other types of gyms but most of the fitness people I'm in contact with regularly were out of work almost immediately. Then there was the Flat Earther Hot Yoga guy in Delta who had his licence pulled because he was remaining open and advertising that Hot Yoga killed the COVID virus. He has subsequently continued to seek out his allotment of 15 minutes of fame by continuing to post videos about his views on the virus being a hoax.

One of the best comments I've seen from an American twitter account was something along the lines of "Woe but that I only have one life to lay down for the sake of the Dow Jones".

I might be mistaken, but I've been under the impression that the numbers of infected that are reported are only those people tested? Many people who have had COVID-19 have not been tested to confirm, merely sent home to recover on their own after being advised that if symptoms worsen to go to hospital? I don't think it's time to relax the "stay home" edict. I'm heartened by the flattening of the "hospitalized" numbers as I think that's a better measure of how we are doing relative to spread of the disease. My guess (completely uneducated) is that if we maintain that rate over the next couple of weeks we will start to see some relaxing of the quarantine measures, but not sure what bits will be relaxed first. Perhaps hair salons and personal service businesses so that we can all be trimmed and painted before being seen regularly in public again?

Hoping for both @PhillipBlunt and @stawns - a speedy and non dramatic recovery. For the rest of us - please stay safe - 6 feet apart.

Big shoutout to @Zfetchfor all the work in putting this together. It's been a fun distraction! Congrats again to J23 for a hard fought victory! Tip of the hat to all the competitors for taking time out of your day to play along! Now I have to go to FB (yes, I'm that old!) and let my throngs of fans know that I was bested by a worthy competitor! Cheers all, stay safe!

Congrats J23! I was honoured to be your final competition enroute to the crown! Well done! I hope I was a worthy opponent!

Good Luck J23! It's been a fun ride regardless of the outcome!

I can't wait to do my final victory dance in the glass slippers!

Good luck!

I submitted mine as soon as I finished doing the victory dance around my townhouse...not sure my downstairs neighbour is happy with my winning

I'm in.

Timing is everything, while I hate that Marky is injured, so glad we were able to find a backup before the deadline without having to pull someone from Utica. Glad we didn't make any other moves. I was surprised at the number of moves, lately it seemed like the TDL was overhyped with most of the action occurring well before the final day. Kudo's to JB on deftly snagging Toffoli before the craziness that drove up prices on TDL. Now all we have to do is make it into the playoffs, get through at least one round, and then figure out how to resign all the essential pieces. Let's hope both Markstrom and Boeser are back well before the playoffs and Tryamkin comes in and joins the team. We'll need the depth available as the playoffs become such a war of attrition.

I'm not an expert on disease control, I think that many of the articles are trying to educate the general population on mitigation strategies. Avoid touching your eyes, nose, mouth with your hands (triangle of death) as most disease is transmitted through those areas. Heightened awareness of handwashing is never a bad thing. People die from flu virus every year, hence the flu vaccines. Most at risk are the older and ill populations. Nothing new here. However, if more people in the general population become sick even though they aren't at risk of death, there is a significant hit to our economy. I remember working for a large corporation during the SARS outbreak and all the mitigation strategies we put in place during that time to keep our company functioning in the event of huge swaths of employees being absent. Significant numbers of people being ill also puts a huge strain on our medical resources which then reduces availability for treatment of other health issues. We are likely to see increased death rates similar to any flu issue, but more broad as this virus we can't vaccinate for and it seems to hit pretty hard. Some of the work I do is in Community Centers and we are now doing a lot more cleaning and sanitizing than ever before to help mitigate any risks. Please be prepared to stay at home if you have any illness symptoms, sadly by the time you have symptoms you may have already passed on whatever illness you have. Stock up on necessities so you can self quarantine for a week or two. Wash your hands folks!

This probably isn't popular but I hope the Canucks stand pat at the TDL, sort of "dance with the gal you brought to the dance". The players they have are what got them to this point, I doubt there is any one or two moves that would make them Cup contenders, I'd hate to see the team chemistry disrupted just to add a piece that likely won't mean a lot to the final standing, unless it's a piece that will be a significant upgrade into next season or beyond. Time enough in the off season to make some adjustments.