How Do You Feel About Public Auctions Without Live Viewing?

That seems to be a common retort but is the rate really tied to the restrictions? Is that provable? I very much doubt it. But go ahead and prove it using science and data. I await.

It might not be scientific, but everyone from the CDC, the president commission, and the various university medical groups all stated numbers that were many millions higher then it has turned out to be. And since all it takes to infect a very large number of people is ONE infected person, LOGIC dictates that the "stay at home" policy has significantly contributed to that lowering of the numbers. People are free to believe or disbelieve anything they want, but unless you can PROVE that infection rates would be the same everywhere without the "stay in place", then you have no case.
Sweden has only very limited lockdowns in place, this shows what has happened so far compared to the rest of Scandinavia:
https://www.vox.com/2020/4/9/212134...-cases-death

Actually I was asking about the lack of large stamp lots going up for auction ,not about the virus .

On the subject of closing down or reducing the amount of stamps that is what is happening and how would it effect the lower end or the collectible end of the market for ebay sellers .

Eventually it would cause changes, but short term it has caused those stamps that are available at auction to have fairly strong prices, and ebay is busy as well. In a somewhat more limited market, even temporarily, that which is left gets more attention.

Which by the way is what would happen to those "rural areas" if they opened up too soon. Large numbers of outsiders would get into their cars and flock to the open areas, because that is human nature. And they would quickly overwhelm it. And some would bring the virus with them. I wonder what would happen next?

Here is an article which presents the results of a quantitative scientist who invested time analyzing the empirical data of states shutting down https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/...e-lockdowns/ . This has been published about a week and no one has disputed the findings.
Don

That is hardly a source to be trusted.

As far as stamps are concerned, it might be well to remember that in 1933 in the height of the depression, the Arthur Hind sale broke records. And the stamp market certainly flourished after the depression ended. And that lasted several years, and was much worse then anything we have gone through so far.

Is the research, researcher or the study incorrect?
Don

Edit: Because frankly all media outlets lean one way or another (including the one you linked above). We all have to ignore the opinions in these articles and drill down to the actual numbers and actual science.

The bottom line is that the Country needs to reopen while protecting the vulnerable. In Berkshire County Ma where I live there have been 425 cases and 31 deaths to date. The death rate is 24 per hundred thousand. Almost every death was a person in their 80's that was living in a long term care facility and had other health conditions. Meanwhile the economy has already been destroyed. It will take many years to recover and will likely never be the same. Berkshire County is being treated the same as Boston. It makes zero sense. Zero. The damage is done however.

Data for those interested:

https://www.mass.gov/doc/covid-19-d...020/download

Apparently it still has not sunk in that when the population is faced with a highly communicative disease for which there is no current medical response, waiting is the worst thing one can do. The fact that there are so many unknowns means that the response must be based on past experience with similar situations. In this case, the last time something similar happened, 50 MILLION people died. Does anyone really think that it would have been justified to allow tat to potentially happen again? Or does society try to take steps to prevent it? Has it been overkill in some situations? Perhaps, but some sense of proportion should be used here. Because no one actually KNEW what would happen, and because it only takes ONE person to infect a large number of others, and because some people will die if infected, decisions had to be made to try to prevent such a catastrophe. That which has been done was really the only defense possible at the time. Does it cause other harm, of course it does. Wars always do. And hindsight is always 20/20.

rev,
I love NY, I grew up within site of the NY skyline. My family is all from NY, my great grandfather was Treasurer for the city of Yonkers. My heart goes out to all areas that are hard hit.

In my opinion trying to address this with a broad brush 'one-size-fits-all' approach was acceptable at the beginning and for the short term; this provides the time to ID the high risk populations, ID the high risk locations, and develop a plan. I am not critical of the billions that were spent over-reacting to the incorrect predictions that our healthcare system would collapse because this was being proactive. This is the cost of saving lives.

But the States crossed the line when they moved on to implementing house arrest and closing down their economies. In my state alone there are countless diverse communities and locations, I do not think that state wide 'one-size-fits-all' approach is feasible.

But in my opinion we should have quickly moved to a local targeted approach. At the county level things become manageable by identifying at risk individuals and at risk locations. At risk individuals are folks like myself who are old and have pre-existing conditions. At risk location are any public spaces or locations. Each space or location has unique attributes and must be analyzed individually. For example, in a downtown area they might allow restaurants open outdoor seating and take out but restrict indoor dining. Parks, golf, tennis courts, recreation areas would all need tailored guidelines. Each retail store should decide how best to meet guidelines and if problematic could be reviewed at the local level.

Of course certain high risk locations/facilities should warrant special attention. Nursing homes, extend care facilities, dialysis centers are the "canaries in the mine" for local communities. And obviously food processing and food handling locations are critical to monitor. For these locations we need to stop being reactive and be proactive. In other words for these locations, do not wait until people get ill before you test them, test the people (employees, residents, patients) proactively.

The media has worked very hard at polarizing society but the folks I know have a moderate perspective. They are weary of the intense division the media has nurtured. They are not extremely left or right, they simply want to go to work and support their families without undue risk. When I ask them, 'can you think of ways that your place of employment could be restarted safely they say 'yes' and then go on to outline what seems to me to be reasonable methods. But the media wants no part of a moderate perspective, they want everyone angry and everyone pointing fingers at each other. And they have also frozen the politicians and made them even more impotent than usual. (Everyone knows that even a small reoccurrence will immediately result in 'there is blood on your hands' news stories.) When I look back over the last few years, the media has painted every single issue in an extreme black and white terms; I can name no media outlet which I can come close to calling moderate.

We face endless threats to our health and safety so of course we need to work hard to protect those who cannot help themselves. But I have faith in small business, not in the media. I have faith in science, not politicians. I have faith in people, not governments.

In the past, I have been guilty of not giving my full attention to the votes I cast at the local level. It takes significant amounts of time do discovery for local candidates at election time and I got lazy. But if nothing else this situation will drive a renewed motivation for me in future elections.
Don

EVERYONE wants to get back to work, and to normal. But the fact remains that when all it takes is one infected person to turn someplace into a hot spot, and that people are going to flock to anyplace that is open, it should be obvious that it has to be an all or nothing situation. And it can't be nothing.

I go to the grocery store on a weekly basis and enter the store with at least a hundred other folks. I shop the aisles, go to the checkout, load my vehicle and go home. I wear a mask and use hand sanitizer. Same for some other "essential" businesses. I have yet to hear a rational explanation as to why I cannot go to my barber shop wearing a mask and sit in the chair for a haircut. Heck, you want me to wear goggles? OK I cannot wander around the Norman Rockwell Museum wearing a mask and look at artwork either even if they put limits on visitors in at one time. That is now a moot point because most of the staff have been furloughed and the museum does not know when it might reopen.

It is going to be something to behold when the data shows clearly that a large percentage of the population was already infected well before the draconian government overreach began in earnest and the hospitalization and mortality rates are actually extremely low relative to other causes that are tracked. The media will then pivot while absolving themselves of any culpability for continuing to drive narratives that influence political decisions that in turn did irreparable harm to the economy.

What is being demonstrated is that the institutions that protect the elderly in long term care facilities and the like utterly failed to do so. That is a sin. Those facilities exist normally in a semi-lockdown state meaning that the occupants do not leave for the most part. There should have been no visitors allowed. That used to be the case during bad flu seasons but somehow that did not happen this time around. Big changes will be coming for those places.

To disrupt the train of thought here ,I really wanted to know how the closing of one large stamp auction firms collection sale and the other one reducing greatly their collection/accumalations sale was going to effect the big increase in on-line sale with this virus .

I go with Jim Morrison of the Doors in his STRANGE DAYS album----NOBODY GETS OUT ALIVE .

Oh, and as far as politicians go I look at the following. In the early days of COVID-19 a classified briefing was held for the Senate. How many Senators showed up to hear it? Two The rest, Republican and Democrat, were "busy" preparing impeachment hearing questions. The two Senators that did attend were quite alarmed by what they heard but found that their fellow Senators had no time for such matters.

Even more "amusing" is the fact that George Bush warned against the exact scenario we are living in now during a speech at the NIH during his tenure as President. Had Congress not ignored him, we might have been better prepared...

As an aside, I wish I would have known you were in Berkshire County before I moved away from Columbia County in NY. I used to go to Great Barrington regularly, and it would have been nice to have gotten together. Now I'm in the Catskills and much further away from the Massachusetts border.

I was wondering how long it would take for this whole situation to be the fault of the impeachment hearings.