Sound off: who among us is "essential", and who isn't?

B P wrote:

I was hoping to sound a little sarcastic

Haha you did, but with some of the comments I've read lately, can never be too careful. 

Ryan McDermott wrote:
PA shut the liquor stores a couple weeks ago. You can still buy wine in grocery stores (bad selection) and beer at beer distributors. No liquor tho. 

Dearly missing those liqueur stores, but I cant figure out for the life of me how the beer distributors are still open. 

normajean wrote:

Dearly missing those liqueur stores, but I cant figure out for the life of me how the beer distributors are still open. 

Aren't there people breaking into the closed liquor stores yet?  Sounds like a recipe for disaster.

Mechanical Engineer who works mostly in manufacturing. We normally run 24/5 but now have bumped up to 24/7 ironically because of our oil/gas customers request.  Did anyone in manufacturing actually get shut down?  The only ones I know of were automakers and a couple of their bigger suppliers who do mostly casting or stamping for them.

B P wrote:

Jim, no. 

Hey look I’m sure you’re a great guy, but we need your wife and not you. If people are still buying  gear they’re just clogging up the crags. I would focus more on your relationship.

Don't panic, I'm still working off my back-order lists for my distributors, the lead times for stock are meaured in months. And my wife is on short-time hanging around at home getting on my nerves!

B P wrote: Can’t speak to the dispensaries but if the state were to cut off liquor sales the hospitals would be inundated with people in withdrawal. I’m not condoning it, but unfortunately I’d rather have a bunch of respiratory illness case that ETOH withdrawal, not to mention they probably pay better.

I explained this to some family members that were questioning the logic of continued alcohol sales not too long ago...and like you I'm not condoning it.

Alcohol withdrawal (likewise for benzodiazepines that work on GABA receptors in the brain, like alcohol) can kill someone because without medical attention when they withdrawal they are prone to develop life threatening seizure activity/delirium tremens.

Withdrawal from a lot of other substances...opioids for example, the person may feel like they want to die, but the withdrawal is not really life threatening.

i'm essential to my family and company. 

I'm seeing covid-19 sufferers who are now going through alcohol withdrawals in ICU, further clogging up beds. Alcohol is the greatest scourge in this country.

Glen Prior wrote: I'm seeing covid-19 sufferers who are now going through alcohol withdrawals in ICU, further clogging up beds. Alcohol is the greatest scourge in this country.

As a non-American I've have said Republicans and the NRA.

Jim Titt for the win!!

Hard to disagree with you Jim.

I'm a foreman for a residential and commercial builder. In PA construction has been deemed non-essential except for repair work (furnaces, roofs, etc), so I'm laid off and stay-at-homed. On the d.l. I'll build your climbing wall for a decent bottle of bourbon.

Jim Titt wrote:

As a non-American I've have said Republicans and the NRA.

Sure dude- keep thinking like that.

I work in the tree care industry.  We have been deemed essential

Glen Prior wrote: I'm seeing covid-19 sufferers who are now going through alcohol withdrawals in ICU, further clogging up beds. Alcohol is the greatest scourge in this country.

Perhaps you've never heard of cigarettes?  I'm not saying alcohol is great, but particularly in the context of a lung disease, you bring up booze?

Ask yourself what group of folks ends up disproportionally hospitalized by covid to start with... you'll see a lot of smokers in there. (Aged, Diabetes, immunocompromised, smokers, etc...)

And I think there may be a fair larger number of smokers (34Million) than alcoholics (#'s vary depending on your definition, but probably 10-20M, with numbers centering around 15M), a > 2:1 difference.  Smoking related deaths number close to 500,000/year and alcohol related deaths are about 88,000/year, a 6:1 difference.

I'm guessing that Covid is more likely kill a smoker (or former smoker)than an alcoholic, which is one reason that is listed as a risk factor.

True that drunk driving kills people that are innocent.  But second hand smoke kills many more than that too.

At the moment there is very little to evidence to support the claim that smokers are more likely to be killed by coronavirus, in fact some studies have shown smokers are significantly underrepresented in severe Covid-19. The thinking for this is that nicotine is known to interact with the Renin-angiotensin system which among other things has to do with how much ACE2(the receptor for SARS-COV-2) is expressed and if nicotine downregulates ACE2 then less receptors for the virus=less chance of acquisition/severe infection. There are also studies that indicate nicotine upregulates ACE2 and there is also thinking that despite ACE2 being a receptor for the virus, it is also been shown to be protective in cases of ARDS so higher ACE2 ends up being a protective factor. https://www.qeios.com/read/article/561

Doug S wrote: I'm a foreman for a residential and commercial builder. In PA construction has been deemed non-essential except for repair work (furnaces, roofs, etc), so I'm laid off and stay-at-homed. On the d.l. I'll build your climbing wall for a decent bottle of bourbon.

Darn! Just drank my last bottle! 

Jim Titt wrote:

As a non-American I've have said Republicans and the NRA.

What happens when the ER doc is republican?

Ryan M Moore wrote: At the moment there is very little to evidence to support the claim that smokers are more likely to be killed by coronavirus, in fact some studies have shown smokers are significantly underrepresented in severe Covid-19. The thinking for this is that nicotine is known to interact with the Renin-angiotensin system which among other things has to do with how much ACE2(the receptor for SARS-COV-2) is expressed and if nicotine downregulates ACE2 then less receptors for the virus=less chance of acquisition/severe infection. There are also studies that indicate nicotine upregulates ACE2 and there is also thinking that despite ACE2 being a receptor for the virus, it is also been shown to be protective in cases of ARDS so higher ACE2 ends up being a protective factor. https://www.qeios.com/read/article/561

TLDR:no one knows whether smoking(nicotine) is a risk or mitigating factor for Covid-19,  but you’re definitely more likely to die of a smoking related illness as a smoker than you are to die of Covid-19...

That seems to be at odds with the following:
https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/q-a-on-smoking-and-covid-19
https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-reaction-to-questions-about-smoking-and-covid-19/

But I was not talking about nicotine, I'm talking about reduced lung capacity & health, IE: emphysema.

Trevor Taylor wrote:

What happens when the ER doc is republican?

He’s pissed that this has happened to his party.