It was a test but in shot form i guess. They're widespread here in NYC. You just have to register and set an appointment 

I get results in 2-3 days.

I wish I could get an anti body test here. I would really like to know if my wife and I already endured covid19 in Februari. She was very sick for a long time with all the symptoms (fearing not waking up due to lack of oxygen) and I had a weird sore throat for about a month and generally felt tired. (While I hardly ever get sick and usually fight anything off in a couple days)

I rather get myself tested first, since if it wasn't covid19, she will likely not survive getting it. That double pneumonia with complications that she did have made us extra cautious. However all I can find is that Quebec and maybe Ontario will start random anti body tests at some point in time. Canada only approved the first test on May 12th.

By the time it finally gets available here the IgG antibodies might be gone already lol. It's almost been 3 months now.

I send an email to the local health unit. We never got a follow up call from the doctor who is impossible to reach anyway.

It isn't a shot. They are withdrawing blood. Antibody test isn't a shot unless I missed something.

A shot is injecting yourself with something.  A test is withdrawing blood.

Yeah they withdrew blood. Ive always called every injection a shot.

Hopefully Canada gets it running soon. I was surprised by how easy it was here. Since the city has my number for alerts i got the alert yesterday that you can register for a test online and take it at a location next to you. Registering for an appointment took like 5 minutes and when I got there they checked my temperature before letting me in then i waited in a line for like 10 minutes,  showed them my ID got the shot was told I'd get an email in 2-3 days and went home.

Not once did I assert that the Government is going to save us or anyone from a depression.

Recessions and Depressions are a fact of life, with economic growth, there will be economic contractions at some point, that's literally a fact of life, it's a correction of the markets and financial systems, it's going to happen, it's a matter of when not if.

And there needs to be safety nets and systems to protect the vulnerable for when such occurrences do happen.

In-fact the United States does have a couple of systems in place for such an instance, things they learned from the last great depression, such as the unemployment insurance, it's definitely not as comprehensive as what other European countries have done due to the silly aversion of "socialist" ideas in the USA, but it's one example.
https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/social-security/social-security-unemployment-insurance/

If the appropriate safety nets in place, food will still be placed on the table, rents will be covered, bills will be covered.

That's what I am getting at.

For example... During this crisis Australia implemented a scheme where it paid employers $1,500 per worker who then continued to employ and pay their workers, which means those individuals still had a job to go to when businesses re-open and could thus still put food on the table.

The Unemployment benefits got increased to $1,100 per fortnight, with a $750 lump sum, the state government gave $550 to every unemployed individual.

Government mandated it was illegal to kick anyone out of their home if they couldn't cover rents, they made gaining finance far easier with a plethora of securities... And so much more.

This is what a safety net looks like when you put an economy into Hibernation, everyone is protected.

People can still buy food. Lives are saved.

And now we are opening up our economy and there is minimal/no risk of the virus, so even with hindsight we can see it was the right decision, our lockdown was short, the economic hit rather moderate compared to other nations who are still dealing with this issue. (I.E. USA.)

All unnecessary means of production, yes. But nice try with the hyperbole.
Who said it needed to be for a decade?

It was only a couple months in Australia, we halted the spread and defeated the virus quickly and are returning to normal as we speak with no new cases, no one in hospital.
There isn't a lockdown here anymore.


We literally have the example and the evidence that halting the economy, going into lockdown temporarily, defeating the virus and getting back to normal is a perfectly sound strategy that has worked for a ton of countries and actually results in a smaller economic hit overall.


- "Maximum amount of lives saved in a minimal amount of time"

I am a firefighter, I am an essential service. I still respond to any and all rescues.

However. My pay did decrease significantly during the lockdown, everyone was staying at home, I wasn't attending road crash rescues, I wasn't scaling down a cliff doing vertical rescues, I wasn't traveling out to sea to do a marine rescue, I wasn't going down into tunnels doing a confined space rescue.

None of that happened. - And I get paid on a per-job basis... The only job I had during that time was at the airport when a planes front wheel failed to engage and lower to allow for a landing. So that was about 3 hours worth of work in a few months.

How did I feed myself? Australia has a multitude of "safety nets" (Some of which I elaborated upon prior) that ensures financial stability for it's citizens, I personally relied on my Superannuation as the Government allowed increased access to it, basically every time I get paid, my employer takes a % and puts it into a special fund, controlled by the government, and over the decades does accumulate a rather hefty amount as you can imagine.

I was also getting a $1,500 payment every 2 weeks to cover arrears on top of it.

Again, not all work is stopped in Australia, only non-essential work. Your hyperbole isn't working, fact is, we succeeded in putting our economy into hibernation, defeating the virus and resuming our economic activity, the USA? Still dealing with an increasing death toll from the virus, the entire situation was incompetently handled over there.

And the evidence certainly speaks for itself.

You don't have to print more money.
But if the USA didn't have such a horrific debt to GDP ratio, they could have had the ability to maneuver their economy to protect the vulnerable during "rainy days" such as the Coronavirus, that's a failure on Republican and Democratic governments to plan appropriately for the long term.

Is what it is, but Trump needed to pay debt down, not blow it out.

However, one thing we need to keep in mind is that the United States, Like Australia is a sovereign nation with complete control over their currency, they can pay down large swathes of that debt by printing money, playing with inflation, buying bonds and so forth, generally that's not seen as ideal though as it has economic ramifications.

The ideal position is for economic growth to outstrip debt, so that you can pay it down organically.

Warning from the Fire department here: Don't leave your hand sanitizer exposed in the car. It can catch on fire.

“With extended exposure to high temperatures, the alcohol in the hand sanitizer will eventually evaporate, causing it to lose its efficacy,” Yui and McDougall wrote in the Thursday newsletter. “Additionally, there is a potential fire risk to storing hand sanitizer in your car. In extreme heat, it can ignite due to its high alcohol content.”

https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/pm-trudeau-feds-will-soon-strongly-recommend-contact-tracing-app-1.4949895

Responding to the need to increase the capacity to trace any possible contacts of confirmed COVID-19 cases, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the federal government will soon be “strongly recommending” Canadians download a to-be-determined monitoring and exposure notification app.

In the meantime federal employees are ready to make thousands of contact tracing calls a day, seven days a week.

During his Friday morning address outlining the latest federal pandemic measures, Trudeau said that the federal government has trained federal employees who can make 3,600 contact tracing calls a day, and in addition, Statistics Canada has trained another 1,700 interviewers who can make up to 20,000 calls a day.

I don't have a phone so good luck with that. It will be voluntary anyway.




Maybe some good will come from all of this for the homeless

https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/the-toll-covid-19-is-taking-on-canada-s-homeless-1.4950722

“Public health tells us that we should be at home, isolating…[and] wash our hands often with access to hygiene, which are all difficult to do when you’re experiencing homelessness,” he told CTVNews.ca on Thursday via telephone. “Communities around the country have been scrambling to set up isolation shelters [and] create [physical] distancing.

“Ultimately, the best protection from COVID-19 is a home.”

According to the CAEH, up to 235,000 Canadians circle through homeless shelters each year. On any given night, it can mean as many as 35,000 people are in a shelter.

The City of Toronto has also launched a program focused on moving people out of congregate living situations, such as shelters, and into hotel rooms and apartments that have been bought or leased. According to Toronto’s general manager of shelter, support and housing administration, Mary-Anne Bedard, more than 2,500 people have been moved out of city shelters and into 27 different temporary sites. 

As of Tuesday, the city says 352 people in the shelter system have tested positive for COVID-19, with two deaths and 306 active cases.

In British Columbia, more than 500 people have been moved from homeless encampments in Victoria and Vancouver into housing. The provincial government is also providing the population with smartphones. In total, 3,500 phones will go to those across the province, distributed by community organizations and the Social Planning and Research Council of B.C. Providing access to Wi-Fi and equipped with a data cards, the phones are meant to increase access to supports and services no longer offered in-person due to the pandemic.

All good was just little confusing for some but people in your area might just generalize anything from needle a shot whether it's a shot or a test. 

Kind of like how some people from Texas say they want a coke instead of using soda or pop (used to get laughed at for saying pop in Tx).  I knew someone that got upset after leaving drive thru when they told cashier they wanted a coke and they received a Coke.  They were like I really wanted a Dr. Pepper.

Thanks for the clarification. I was worried you got a disinfectant shot in your veins.

Or they wanted cocaine