Going to be hot and humid - not conducive for viral transfer. You got a better chance catching malaria unless you sit next someone hacking a lung on you.
I see people leave the bathrooms without washing more often than I did in the United States. It's nasty. And I'm not at all surprised by Italy. It's the armpit of Europe. Northern Italy is nice and clean, and I like to visit. However, once you get south of Florence, it just gets dirtier and dirtier. And the public bathrooms? In most of them that I've used, I would have felt cleaner if I had just peed or crapped on myself instead of going in. And if you shake a Sicilian's hand, you may as well be putting your hand into his butt crack.
He's still stupid to go. It'll be hot and humid, and most places won't have AC. Furthermore, the lines will be long, and he'll be glued to a bunch of tourists and a bunch of greasy Italians trying to steal his wallet. He's asking to be miserable.
Alabama loves your conspiracy theories. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/03/01/quarantine-alabama-conspiracy-chaos-coronavirus/
I heard on a podcast that the young aren't really catching it because the common cold is essentially a corona virus and all the young ones have that stuff freshly floating around in their system. So, really, just like with the regular flu, the vulnerable folks are the ones who will succumb if they catch it.
I very well may be stupid. It's a soccer trip for my youngest. They've gone to Paris, Chester, and Ireland in the past and I always stayed back working. This will probably be her last one (soph in high school).
Which kind of begs the question: If true, why all the media driven hysteria about a variant of the flu?
I don't think the hysteria is unique to the US. This flu is much more deadly - 3% v. .1% and I believe it is more contagious and seems to have some staying power. I like my chances if I caught it as I'm relatively healthy.
I'm with you, Barry. At least until you quote the 3% mortality rate. I'm not sure I buy those numbers. Perhaps true in China, but remains to be seen in Western countries.
I wonder how this will affect the March conference tournies and Final Four? I volunteer for Conference USA tourney since it is close at Jerry Jones' Star in Frisco. The tourney starts Wed the 11th as I think most conference tourneys do.
The death rate in China after Feb 1 is 0.5% as more resources were brought to bear at the treatment level.
The lying Chinese Govt did not announce the outbreak until around Jan 1. Then they said it all came from a Wuhan food market, and there was no human-to-human transmission, which was untrue. Also untrue was them saying the first known case went to mid-Dec when they knew by then it was at least Dec. 1, possibly/probably months sooner. They also jailed anyone who who contracted the official govt reports with actual facts, from doctors to taxi cab drivers. And then guess what they did? Do you already know this? Spoiler The lying bastard Chinese CCP leadership came to DC to sign the Phase I trade deal mid-January. They smiled, shook hands and so forth, knowing full well about the danger and contagiousness of the coronavirus at that time. But they said nothing. They just showed up in DC like it was no big deal. Were they knowingly trying to infect the US Government? China hid the severity of its coronavirus outbreak and muzzled whistleblowers — because it can
1979 US embassy hostage taker and now vice president of Iran Masoumeh Ebtekar has contracted the deadly COVID-19 disease. thatsashame.gif
If it's her last year, go anyway. It'll be worth the pain in the ***. Make it count though. If you've never been, see the big sites, but I'd try to do "skip the line" tours. It won't eliminate having the wait, but it'll help. Also, Pompeii is worth seeing and worth getting a tour guide. We hired this guy. He is outstanding, though not cheap. Don't try to drive in Rome or Naples. It's asking for trouble.
In general, Southern Italy is dirtier, but the dirtiest parts of San Francisco are dirtier than the dirtiest parts of Southern Italy.
Adam Carolla used to do a bit called Germany or Florida. They'd read a crazy example and you'd have to pick where it transpired. Funny stuff.
People post videos of downtown SF all the time now, with guys just openly dropping trow and going anywhere in the middle of the day. Sometimes, believe it or not, what they do while going or immediately after (with their own byproduct!) is mindbogingly gross. So gross I wont even post them here. I used to live there. The worst things about downtown back then were (1) Parking, which was impossible - forcing you to take the commuter bus - the ones you might have seen with the electrical grid above the streets. In the am, my bus was all suits and went direct to DT, picking up only in the Marina District. Despite the socialist master design, I admit they were better than diesel and got you there pretty quick; and (2) the bike messengers who were amazingly aggressive and often dangerous (I would be willing to bet you most of those guys are antifa now). People who worked downtown talked most about the messengers, because it was completely pointless to discuss the parking. Now they got something else entirely to complain about. Can you imagine arriving at your office with human feces stuck to the bottom of your shoes? People probably have a second set of better shoes under their desks. But what do you do with your soiled commuter shoes all day? I know Southern Italy is filled with dirty thieves. But do they stand on the sidewalks midday and play games with their own feces?
Saw this on another site. This lady thinks she has covid-19 (she lives in Washington state) and is in the high risk category. She is just trying to get tested and can't. Apparently we have a severe shortage of test kits and they only want to use them on people returned from hot spots. The CDC isn't even close to having a handle on this thing.
Well, like I said, the dirtiest parts of SF are dirtier. Nothing's worse than seeing a grown-*** man taking a crap on the sidewalk, and I've never seen anything like that in Italy. I do see people (and sometimes even women) conspicuously urinating on the side of the Autobahn pretty often. However, urine in grass is nowhere near as gross as crap on a sidewalk.
I went to a conference in San Fran back in 2000. I stayed near Fisherman's Warf and took the trolley uptown each day to attend the conference. A couple of times in the evening, I walked back down to my hotel. I walked through Chinatown, the Italian section, climbed the Coit Tower, etc. There were plenty of panhandlers even back then, but the city was fantastic. Hard to believe it's such a ******** now. But, that's what liberal government will do for you.
There was a restaurant we favorited in Little Italy (which keeps getting littler by the way) called the "Stinking Rose." Did you go in there? Every dish was made with garlic, even the deserts. Which made it a great date spot, if you know what I mean. I know it sounds bad to some of you, but they had some delicious food there I promise.
