April 01 2020, 14:50

It would be interesting to create a virtual chart of industries, overlaid onto two axes: “covid impact (right now)” (ranging from -100 to 100) and “covid impact (in the future).”

For example, for barbershops and fitness clubs the impact right now is high (closed), but in the future everything will be as it was. E-commerce sees high impacts in the opposite direction (sales), but in the future it will be better than before, as more people switch to it.

It would be a very convenient tool for career guidance and figuring out where to get money 😉

Thanks for the tip: great link https://blog.dealroom.co/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Corona-vFINAL.pdf

March 31 2020, 12:07

Interesting facts unearthed. In the USA – ~10 million flights per year, transporting 1 billion passengers to/from 13,000 airports, of which about 4,700 are public, the rest are private. In Russia, about 800,000 flights, ~120 million passengers per year, of which about 70% are domestic, and 30% are international. Link about the 800,000 flights in Russia – in the comments from Sergey Sitnikov.

Thus, the USA exceeds Russia by 8.5 times in passenger flow, and by 86 times in the number of airports.

I rewrote the post, originally it was in the form of a WTF question because the numbers from different sources showed exactly the opposite. Thanks for the comments.

Presumably, this could somehow be considered in discussions on the speed of COVID spread in the USA and Russia.

March 30 2020, 14:14

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam announces a Stay At Home Order after seeing people crowd some Virginia beaches this weekend.

“The city hall was furious when they saw on ‘Russia-24’ videos of Muscovites casually enjoying barbecues”

So, now we’ve got a strict stay-at-home order. https://www.fredericksburg.com/news/state_region/northam-to-issue-a-stay-at-home-order-for-virginia/article_a05207f6-72a6-11ea-a1e4-8b863df22db4.html

March 30 2020, 00:35

This is very useful information from the WHO. The current understanding is that this type of virus is mainly transmitted through surfaces and large droplet fractions of biological aerosols – it’s a cloud of particles from the mouth and nose when sneezing, coughing, or even talking. I think the WHO thought long and hard before making such a somewhat dangerous point public. https://www.who.int/news-room/commentaries/detail/modes-of-transmission-of-virus-causing-covid-19-implications-for-ipc-precaution-recommendations

If the scientists are right, then it seems the risk of contracting COVID is virtually nil if a person goes outside, walks to the store, uses a self-checkout, and washes their hands there in the bathroom upon exit. Probably, part of my audience won’t understand the part about the bathroom at the exit and the automatic checkouts… well, then keep about two meters from the cashier. It’s very important for many elderly people to still visit the store, so it’s worth knowing what to fear most. Don’t talk to anyone closer than two meters, don’t touch anything, don’t bite your nails, don’t pick your nose, don’t scratch your eyes, love soap.

I don’t quite understand the physics of the process. Can someone explain? Why doesn’t the fine droplet fraction “work”? That is, in what theoretical situations might it not work? Why can the measles or chickenpox virus spread through fine aerosols and linger in the air for an hour, but COVID-19 cannot?

March 29 2020, 10:34

EPAM has proposed an open-source project called DIY protective face masks “made from readily available materials” or for small-scale production in situations where there is an acute shortage of masks (as is currently the case in Italy). The base material is a polypropylene filter used in replaceable cartridges for air conditioners. Demonstrated on a model that filters particles from 1 micron in size. The virus is smaller, but masks from the nearest pharmacy are no better, and this alternative is for when there are no masks at all (and there are still cartridges for air conditioners 😉

https://solutionshub.epam.com/solution/gentl-mask