I also doubt Amazon employs many elderly or high-risk individuals as warehouse workers. I also doubt they would refuse to make exceptions for those workers.
Right about now, I'd just be happy for the job security because the coming recession is going to be rough.
Well, we know that COVID-19 can survive up to 24 hours on cardboard. That actually gives a simple way to avoid outgoing spread: make sure items don't begin shipping, or don't leave the truck, for at least 30 hours from packaging.
It means no 2-day shipping, but I think even "fast" shipping times are at something like a week for most people right now, so that's not much of a problem.
Do you have a source for that? Nicholas Christakis (John Hopkins MD, infectious disease specialist) said on most surfaces, SARS-cov2 (the virus, COVID-19 is the disease) can survive an hour. He did mention it depends on the environment (it would only survive a few minutes on copper surfaces for example), so is cardboard able to hold the virus along longer? Is there data on this?
Maybe have outgoing boxes pass through some kind of ethanol misting system to sanitize them? with a catching tray to recirculate the condensed ethanol for reuse. Although the fire risks of such a solution would be somewhat worrying.
It's not going anywhere.
Amazon employs lots of elderly individuals in their warehouses, if over 40 counts as elderly. I've seen people at the warehouse where I work who look over 50.
>I also doubt Amazon employs many elderly or high-risk individuals as warehouse workers.
Amazon all but takes pride in refusing to make exceptions for anyone unless there is a doctor's form involved or the law requires them to.
My worry is that (if local store shelves are any indication) they’re just shipping paranoid people 800 rolls of toilet paper. And it’s terrible that warehouse employees will be basically strained to the breaking point to make up for selfishness and uneducated masses.
Seems like they could afford to pay them more.
You might have missed the memo there.
Amazon is suspending shipment of all products except daily staples and medicines.
no bootlicking responses please
I don't really think Amazon, or even AWS for that matter, has been a collective good for society or tech. It's just locked people into using them for the default. Easy/frictionless goods and web service infrastructure might seem like a step up, but it locks you in as well.
Also, Jeff doesn't make millions an hour, he gets paid in stock. Stock is not cash, and is not a form of liquidity. In addition, $AMZN has dropped 20% in the past month, so by your math he's been "losing" money.
Get off your high horse and get real - there's about to be a recession, and they're hiring people who are out of a job AND paying them extra while they ensure people have a way to get vital goods while staying indoors and minimizing spread.
This whole "they're evil" bs is tiring and lazy.
We have a world class supply-chain. This is a moment when the US, and the world, 100% must have a functioning supply chain. I'm proud of the work we're doing to keep things running under unusual stress.
But other than that, agreed, good job; I saw earlier about not restocking non-essentials, to focus on higher demand for less discretionary items, that's bound to cause some frustration, but it's good to see - since those are presumably the less profitable lines too.
Also in excellent Corporate Social Responsibility this week is LVMH, reconfiguring perfume production lines to produce hand sanitiser for France, for free.
Beats 'Hey Italy, have a free trial of our SaaS product' [0] hands down.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ETU-_paU0AIjwnK?format=jpg&name=...
World-class my ass.
[1]: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.09.20033217v...
"It is not certain how long the virus that causes COVID-19 survives on surfaces, but it seems to behave like other coronaviruses. Studies suggest that coronaviruses (including preliminary information on the COVID-19 virus) may persist on surfaces for a few hours or up to several days. This may vary under different conditions (e.g. type of surface, temperature or humidity of the environment).
If you think a surface may be infected, clean it with simple disinfectant to kill the virus and protect yourself and others. Clean your hands with an alcohol-based hand rub or wash them with soap and water. Avoid touching your eyes, mouth, or nose."
> and can survive on cardboard for a day—up to 24 hours—post-contamination.
And the actual paper: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.09.20033217v...
Sure it sucks for those who work for Amazon, ideally they should be given a choice, but people are not going to stop buying things if Amazon is way behind and orders are looking at a week or two shipment time. They'll go out in public to stores full of other people. This seems like the lesser evil of two bad options to me.
Right now, yes those workers are at greater danger than not working (and maybe they deserve extra pay here) but I would argue that for the public good Amazon better than in person stores at the moment.
Isopropyl is cheap and easily available in bulk quantities, this would only need a water hookup to mix it to 70% isopropyl (again, using commercially available garden equipment normally used to mix plant feed inline with a hose or irrigation system). Reclamation systems would be a little more work - would need some kind of reclamation dish and pump that doesn't interfere with carts etc. passing through.
Maybe it is impractical, but I still like the idea.
[1] https://www.calpaclab.com/ldpe-chemical-compatibility-chart/