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Out of curiosity, how is the coronavirus affecting all of you? My school is shut down for a while, and the restaurant I work at has gotten crazy strict-people are no longer allowed to grab their own sauces and straws. So how about you?

A lot here in Washington State. Just found out earlier today that this was the last day of school for my kids for at least six weeks. I don't live in Seattle, but I've heard it's like a ghost town there. Luckily, I have a job that doesn't require me coming into contact with a lot of people, and about half of it I do from home. Hopefully, for everyone's sake, this gets under control soon, but I feel it may get worse before it gets better.
Everyone stay as safe as possible out there. Take precautions, wash your hands, don't touch your face, stay six feet away from people outside your immediate family, etc., etc. You may be saving more lives than just your own.

All the local schools in my area are closed, as are the colleges. My workplace is still open though, but we're prepared to close down at a moment's notice. I'm not too worried about myself getting sick, or even being in isolation. But I have a very sick girlfriend (cystic fibrosis) who I'm extremely worried about. Even though we only live a short drive away from each other, we probably won't see each other for a while.

Hang in there, people.

Everyone
Everyone around here
Everyone is so near
It's holding on

Update: I'm currently working from home, and will be for the next two weeks. Most likely I will be working from home longer than that, but we'll see. It's my second day of semi-quarantine, and it's not so bad this far, as I'm a fairly introverted guy. Let's see how I feel in two weeks though!

Stay healthy and safe everyone! And stay home!!

I have still had to work. My job is considered "essential" enough to keep employed. I actually got a $2 raise until the end of April.

Occasionally, I go for a run outside. I keep the "arm's length" rule, and had to tell my girlfriend no kissing and no hugging. But otherwise, it is business as usual for me.

When people asked me where I was during the Plague, I will just tell them "I went about my day as normal."

The worst thing about it for me is everything being cancelled. I could at least put up with it if they had soccer on.

Hi all,

I'm in London, what a shit show. Start of the month, everything was still pretty chill. My job vanished in less than a week and I have had to cancel my wedding and honeymoon as Australia and New Zealand are in lock-down. I'm now stuck at home for at least a minimum of two weeks, with the possibility of this stasis lasting months.

however

This will give me a chance to complete a goal of mine; 500 Albums 2010-2019. I'm going to update my Spreadsheets and re-evaluate albums I haven't listened to in a while. I have less than twenty albums left, so I'm excited to complete this in a month or so. I'll have to have a poke around some of the recent polls to see if there was anything I missed.

Strange times,

Taro

It hasn't affected my job except in terms of it's less convenient to work from home. But I live alone and having zero human contact is really a struggle.

On top of that, I think there's a lot of hypocrisy and moral Johnny Come Latelies that make it even more stressful. The people who will accuse you of killing Grandma and launch into sanctimonious rants for going on a short walk alone around your neighborhood and are saying we should ignore economic struggles as long as a single new case is possible are the same people who weren't willing to make the slightest sacrifice until the possible death toll hit seven figures, continue to do nothing for global warming, and if the same thing happened but only in Africa wouldn't have gone any further than hitting the "Donate $5" button during Amazon checkout.

The level of abject hypocrisy some people display on the Internet has gotten difficult to deal with especially in the absence of real social contact.

I just hope we settle on the approach to just stay home for the two months or so it takes to get past the peak of the first wave of infections, then start gradually opening things back up to keep the infection rate under hospital capacity instead of protracted lockdowns even longer than that. That's probably the best way to minimize the death toll while also minimizing the impact on people's emotional health and the human cost of a prolonged recession.

In Sweden we have become quite famous for still having open schools. So far we’re doing alright...and I think we’re doing the right thing. Closing schools would lead to
1. Reduced hospital staff because parents have to stay home and take care of their kids.
2. Grandparents at risk taking care of their grandchildren and get infected.

I live in a fairly small Wisconsin county, and we just had our first confirmed case.

These measures are absolutely necessary and probably for at least a period of 2-3 months (Followed by a period of gradual loosening to build herd immunity while keeping hospitals from being overwhelmed).

I'm just getting sick of the sanctimonious tone of some people who would have never lifted a finger until the number of deaths they were quoted rose above half a million and suddenly think they can call people horrible monsters for even raising the economy and personal freedoms as a factor in the equation. They act like even considering the effect of the economy is a matter of helping selfish rich people protect their fortunes, when it's the poor who will suffer the most and spread out over several years might even kill more people in the long run than the marginal effect on virus.

The same people who in 2001 crashed press conferences with banners saying "Those who would trade freedom for security deserve neither", no less. I think it's perfectly reasonable to say that the restrictions should gradually start loosening as soon as we get past the point where we can be confident the hospitals can handle the load, and I'm sick of the self righteous hypocrisy of 75% of the Internet who, if they were quoted 150,000 as the possible number of deaths instead of millions, would definitely still be out partying.

I think more than half the country is at shelter-in-place, though Arizona is not. EDIT: Now it is. (Many things are closed, like restaurants except for take-out, and schools. Daycare isn't closed, but my wife is working from home and has the baby at home, at this time.) Juvenile court never closes, but if we go to shelter-in-place, I'd probably come in to work once a week, at best. For most people, I worry about the other factors like employment more than getting the virus. My 71-year-old mother lives nearby and isn't taking visitors, which must hurt as far as seeing the rest of the family and her infant granddaughter. My grandfather-in-law was visiting his daughter, and so actually he's stuck there now and can't get back to his wife, currently.

My grandparents on my mom's side lived through the Spanish flu as kids, and my oldest picture of my grandpa is for a football team photo from the early '30s, accompanied by an article of him playing a local game in front of 2,000 people -- this will all end at some point, though I understand if that sounds like a platitude to people going through hardship. If anything, I'm on the fairly comfortable side. (By the way, I haven't seen Moonbeam around here for a good while, and I wonder if he's going through some heavy shit in some way, virus-related.) Anyway, It'd just be outrageously stupid to try to open things back up on Easter like it's some film premiere date that you're trying to meet in a couple weeks and the movie's 1/4 filmed.

You know, if Trump had taken the dangers of this virus seriously, then it's spread may have been minimized in the United States. But no, he called it a hoax. It's no wonder why with America leading the world in confirmed cases, many ignoramuses still choose not to take COVID-19 seriously. Do these people realize that more people are going to get sick and die from the virus? It's no wonder they don't when the most powerful government in the world doesn't. Hospitals over here are looking like war zones, with no end in sight. And like I said, the death toll will only go up. I'm sorry if I seem like such a downer over this, but someone needs to be held accountable for this incompetence. The relief bill may have been a start, but sadly, it's too late. The impact is here to stay.

Stay safe everybody.

Cold Butterfly wrote: ↑Tue Mar 31, 2020 2:41 am You know, if Trump had taken the dangers of this virus seriously, then it's spread may have been minimized in the United States. But no, he called it a hoax. It's no wonder why with America leading the world in confirmed cases, many ignoramuses still choose not to take COVID-19 seriously. Do these people realize that more people are going to get sick and die from the virus? It's no wonder they don't when the most powerful government in the world doesn't. Hospitals over here are looking like war zones, with no end in sight. And like I said, the death toll will only go up. I'm sorry if I seem like such a downer over this, but someone needs to be held accountable for this incompetence. The relief bill may have been a start, but sadly, it's too late. The impact is here to stay.

Stay safe everybody.

You're pretty spot on with this.

^^ I agree.

Cold Butterfly wrote: ↑Tue Mar 31, 2020 2:41 am You know, if Trump had taken the dangers of this virus seriously, then it's spread may have been minimized in the United States. But no, he called it a hoax. It's no wonder why with America leading the world in confirmed cases, many ignoramuses still choose not to take COVID-19 seriously. Do these people realize that more people are going to get sick and die from the virus? It's no wonder they don't when the most powerful government in the world doesn't. Hospitals over here are looking like war zones, with no end in sight. And like I said, the death toll will only go up. I'm sorry if I seem like such a downer over this, but someone needs to be held accountable for this incompetence. The relief bill may have been a start, but sadly, it's too late. The impact is here to stay.

Stay safe everybody.

Sade! But o my thinking, the core lesson of COVID-19 is the need to change the context in which it emerged, a context of disinvestment in public health preparedness.

I live in Madrid, here the situation is very bad. We have already been in quarantine for more than two weeks and the situation does not improve. I live alone and cannot see my family, friends or girlfriend. I can only go out to buy food. I have been temporarily fired from work (I hope). In spite of everything, it can be said that I am lucky, since none of my loved ones is still sick. I spend the day watching movies and series and listening to records. I think we will continue like this for a while.

I live in Antwerp, Belgium. The company I work for is seen as essential for the Belgian economy, so I can work from home fullltime. I'm lucky I guess, but this brings its own kind of stress, as you are very focused on your job the whole time you work.
Luckily I also have my kids, who keep me sane. They are bored but they take it as it comes. We go outside at least once a day. They have their daily homework. They get along and don't argue. I am very grateful for their presence. None of us are ill.

On the bright side, seems like data is showing that social distancing is working to flatten the curve, at least in the States.

prosecutorgodot wrote: ↑Thu Apr 02, 2020 9:54 pm On the bright side, seems like data is showing that social distancing is working to flatten the curve, at least in the States.

It's tough to judge. If you go to the CDC page, you still see doubling although now down to every 4-5 days, but if you look at the 'Cases by date of illness onset' histogram, it looks relatively flat for the five days before the 'Illnesses in this range may not be reported' part. So it's hard to tell whether the continuing exponential nature is an increase in cases or an increase in detected cases.

I decided to ask my employer to stop scheduling me due to COVID. I work at a fast food restaurant, and we are as busy now as we were last year, which is wonderful that the restaurant is making money, but to me it seems like a matter of time until I get infected through one of the 200+ people coming through drive thru.

Holden wrote: ↑Wed Apr 15, 2020 7:43 pm I decided to ask my employer to stop scheduling me due to COVID. I work at a fast food restaurant, and we are as busy now as we were last year, which is wonderful that the restaurant is making money, but to me it seems like a matter of time until I get infected through one of the 200+ people coming through drive thru.

I hope you’re getting paid leave. A lot of workers haven’t, which is honestly just proof of capitalism’s failure.

Cold Butterfly wrote: ↑Wed Apr 15, 2020 10:32 pm

Holden wrote: ↑Wed Apr 15, 2020 7:43 pm I decided to ask my employer to stop scheduling me due to COVID. I work at a fast food restaurant, and we are as busy now as we were last year, which is wonderful that the restaurant is making money, but to me it seems like a matter of time until I get infected through one of the 200+ people coming through drive thru.

I hope you’re getting paid leave. A lot of workers haven’t, which is honestly just proof of capitalism’s failure.

That's only a sign of failure of proper regulation of capitalism and proper social safety net. You think when we get a good Covid antiviral or vaccine, it'll be because the government funded a researcher, or because some greedy capitalist thought it'd make him or her money?

Jirin wrote: ↑Wed Apr 29, 2020 7:54 pm

Cold Butterfly wrote: ↑Wed Apr 15, 2020 10:32 pm

Holden wrote: ↑Wed Apr 15, 2020 7:43 pm I decided to ask my employer to stop scheduling me due to COVID. I work at a fast food restaurant, and we are as busy now as we were last year, which is wonderful that the restaurant is making money, but to me it seems like a matter of time until I get infected through one of the 200+ people coming through drive thru.

I hope you’re getting paid leave. A lot of workers haven’t, which is honestly just proof of capitalism’s failure.

That's only a sign of failure of proper regulation of capitalism and proper social safety net. You think when we get a good Covid antiviral or vaccine, it'll be because the government funded a researcher, or because some greedy capitalist thought it'd make him or her money?

Just go to your local market to buy a roll of toilet paper and check the price. Then compare it to how much that roll cost five months ago. And what about companies like Amazon who have the economic power to exploit their employees and put them in danger during a pandemic, all because this economic system allows them to? And when that vaccine comes, one of the things I'll be thinking about is how the danger of this pandemic was minimized by government officials in order to protect their precious big businesses. That's all which needs to be said on the matter.

Cold Butterfly wrote: ↑Wed Apr 29, 2020 9:17 pm

Jirin wrote: ↑Wed Apr 29, 2020 7:54 pm

Cold Butterfly wrote: ↑Wed Apr 15, 2020 10:32 pm
I hope you’re getting paid leave. A lot of workers haven’t, which is honestly just proof of capitalism’s failure.

That's only a sign of failure of proper regulation of capitalism and proper social safety net. You think when we get a good Covid antiviral or vaccine, it'll be because the government funded a researcher, or because some greedy capitalist thought it'd make him or her money?

Just go to your local market to buy a roll of toilet paper and check the price. Then compare it to how much that roll cost five months ago. And what about companies like Amazon who have the economic power to exploit their employees and put them in danger during a pandemic, all because this economic system allows them to? And when that vaccine comes, one of the things I'll be thinking about is how the danger of this pandemic was minimized by government officials in order to protect their precious big businesses. That's all which needs to be said on the matter.

That's all a gross oversimplification which blames capitalism for its worst effects without giving it credit for its best effects.

Yeah, price of toilet paper goes up because demand has increased, duh. If you don't allow the price to go up you have more shortages. That's basic economics. You may pay more for toilet paper, but if you didn't the horders would buy it all and you couldn't get it anyway.

And yes, the US government minimized the problem. That's because our president is a narcissistic moron. If the Chinese government hadn't covered up the problem it would have been contained in Wuhan, they're not even capitalist. Other capitalist countries like Japan and South Korea with more competent leadership did a pretty damn good job containing it. The factor in the US wasn't capitalism, it was cronyism and it was incompetence.

The countries the virus hit the least aren't the most socialist countries, they are capitalist countries with competent leadership and a culture of more trust in the government.

Every person who has chosen to go into work does so because they consider the risk to themselves to be smaller than the consequences of months of no income. Again, not a problem of capitalism so much as a problem of not having a good enough social safety net.

"And that's all there is to say in the matter", which of course it isn't, because it's a complex nuanced issue you are reducing to some exaggerated corporatist straw man.

Jirin wrote: ↑Thu Apr 30, 2020 8:51 pm

Cold Butterfly wrote: ↑Wed Apr 29, 2020 9:17 pm

Jirin wrote: ↑Wed Apr 29, 2020 7:54 pm

That's only a sign of failure of proper regulation of capitalism and proper social safety net. You think when we get a good Covid antiviral or vaccine, it'll be because the government funded a researcher, or because some greedy capitalist thought it'd make him or her money?

Just go to your local market to buy a roll of toilet paper and check the price. Then compare it to how much that roll cost five months ago. And what about companies like Amazon who have the economic power to exploit their employees and put them in danger during a pandemic, all because this economic system allows them to? And when that vaccine comes, one of the things I'll be thinking about is how the danger of this pandemic was minimized by government officials in order to protect their precious big businesses. That's all which needs to be said on the matter.

That's all a gross oversimplification which blames capitalism for its worst effects without giving it credit for its best effects.

Yeah, price of toilet paper goes up because demand has increased, duh. If you don't allow the price to go up you have more shortages. That's basic economics. You may pay more for toilet paper, but if you didn't the horders would buy it all and you couldn't get it anyway.

And yes, the US government minimized the problem. That's because our president is a narcissistic moron. If the Chinese government hadn't covered up the problem it would have been contained in Wuhan, they're not even capitalist. Other capitalist countries like Japan and South Korea with more competent leadership did a pretty damn good job containing it. The factor in the US wasn't capitalism, it was cronyism and it was incompetence.

The countries the virus hit the least aren't the most socialist countries, they are capitalist countries with competent leadership and a culture of more trust in the government.

Every person who has chosen to go into work does so because they consider the risk to themselves to be smaller than the consequences of months of no income. Again, not a problem of capitalism so much as a problem of not having a good enough social safety net.

"And that's all there is to say in the matter", which of course it isn't, because it's a complex nuanced issue you are reducing to some exaggerated corporatist straw man.

As someone who wholeheartedly believes in socialism over straight capitalism, I have to agree with the assessment that capitalism Is not the problem, it’s gross incompetence.

Jirin wrote: ↑Thu Apr 30, 2020 8:51 pm

Cold Butterfly wrote: ↑Wed Apr 29, 2020 9:17 pm

Jirin wrote: ↑Wed Apr 29, 2020 7:54 pm

That's only a sign of failure of proper regulation of capitalism and proper social safety net. You think when we get a good Covid antiviral or vaccine, it'll be because the government funded a researcher, or because some greedy capitalist thought it'd make him or her money?

Just go to your local market to buy a roll of toilet paper and check the price. Then compare it to how much that roll cost five months ago. And what about companies like Amazon who have the economic power to exploit their employees and put them in danger during a pandemic, all because this economic system allows them to? And when that vaccine comes, one of the things I'll be thinking about is how the danger of this pandemic was minimized by government officials in order to protect their precious big businesses. That's all which needs to be said on the matter.

That's all a gross oversimplification which blames capitalism for its worst effects without giving it credit for its best effects.

Yeah, price of toilet paper goes up because demand has increased, duh. If you don't allow the price to go up you have more shortages. That's basic economics. You may pay more for toilet paper, but if you didn't the horders would buy it all and you couldn't get it anyway.

And yes, the US government minimized the problem. That's because our president is a narcissistic moron. If the Chinese government hadn't covered up the problem it would have been contained in Wuhan, they're not even capitalist. Other capitalist countries like Japan and South Korea with more competent leadership did a pretty damn good job containing it. The factor in the US wasn't capitalism, it was cronyism and it was incompetence.

The countries the virus hit the least aren't the most socialist countries, they are capitalist countries with competent leadership and a culture of more trust in the government.

Every person who has chosen to go into work does so because they consider the risk to themselves to be smaller than the consequences of months of no income. Again, not a problem of capitalism so much as a problem of not having a good enough social safety net.

"And that's all there is to say in the matter", which of course it isn't, because it's a complex nuanced issue you are reducing to some exaggerated corporatist straw man.

.

To explain the positive effects of capitalism I'd have to go back to economics 101 and drawing demand curves. To show that, if there are no constrains on competition or purchasing behavior, the sum effect of everybody doing what's in their best interest results in the most benefit for the most people. Because fundamentally, people are better at understanding their own needs than any committee is at understanding everybody's needs.

This runs into problems if one firm is able to create a monopoly, or in areas like health care where the consumers do not have the freedom not to buy, and that's where you need regulation.

Capitalism has given us the infrastructure that we could have responded to the virus better than any other country in the world. If we had competent government, and didn't have a culture of not believing the government when they say there's a threat.

Jirin wrote: ↑Sun May 03, 2020 2:25 pm To explain the positive effects of capitalism I'd have to go back to economics 101 and drawing demand curves. To show that, if there are no constrains on competition or purchasing behavior, the sum effect of everybody doing what's in their best interest results in the most benefit for the most people. Because fundamentally, people are better at understanding their own needs than any committee is at understanding everybody's needs.

This runs into problems if one firm is able to create a monopoly, or in areas like health care where the consumers do not have the freedom not to buy, and that's where you need regulation.

Capitalism has given us the infrastructure that we could have responded to the virus better than any other country in the world. If we had competent government, and didn't have a culture of not believing the government when they say there's a threat.

.

While I don’t believe in total government control I do believe that going forward there is something to be said for the government being able to simply halt everyday activities without anyone having to go hungry. For example, a universal basic income, to me, sounds like a very good idea.

Holden wrote: ↑Sun May 03, 2020 11:05 pm While I don’t believe in total government control I do believe that going forward there is something to be said for the government being able to simply halt everyday activities without anyone having to go hungry. For example, a universal basic income, to me, sounds like a very good idea.

.

the same, we are in home quarantine, home office and school office for kids, my home right now is crazy
But I think is for good

We are the same in house, but my aunt in NY have been in hospital aroun 3 weeks
in a critical state of health, we hope that this week you will be discharged, in her house
all are positive to covid. it is really hard the situation for them

I don't understand why my country is so dense about wearing masks.

If you look at the state by state breakdown, the only states that are not spiking now are the northeastern ones that are strictly enforcing mask rules in businesses.

Wearing a mask doesn't mean you lost your freedom, it means you give a shit about other people.

Based on how small the outbreak was in Japan I strongly believe that wearing masks does much more to stop the spread than closing things and not going out.

Jirin wrote: ↑Sat Jul 11, 2020 2:20 pm I don't understand why my country is so dense about wearing masks.

If you look at the state by state breakdown, the only states that are not spiking now are the northeastern ones that are strictly enforcing mask rules in businesses.

Wearing a mask doesn't mean you lost your freedom, it means you give a shit about other people.

Based on how small the outbreak was in Japan I strongly believe that wearing masks does much more to stop the spread than closing things and not going out.

Unfortunately America's been cultivating an anti-science, anti-education culture for years now, and this is the result of that. Large swaths of the population don't believe scientists, the "mainstream" media, or public officials, so the messaging on mask wearing is completely lost on them.

Here in New York, pretty much everyone wears a mask. I think that's probably because of the initial outbreak being so severe here, it scared the stupid out of everybody.

Listyguy wrote: ↑Sat Jul 11, 2020 5:42 pm

Jirin wrote: ↑Sat Jul 11, 2020 2:20 pm I don't understand why my country is so dense about wearing masks.

Unfortunately America's been cultivating an anti-science, anti-education culture for years now, and this is the result of that. Large swaths of the population don't believe scientists, the "mainstream" media, or public officials, so the messaging on mask wearing is completely lost on them.

Here in New York, pretty much everyone wears a mask. I think that's probably because of the initial outbreak being so severe here, it scared the stupid out of everybody.

Let's not forget something very, very important here - one member of that "large swath of the population" referenced above is THE GODDAMNED PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, who does not believe in masks, will not wear one unless it is absolutely necessary, does not believe in enforcing ANY kind of social distancing at his appearances and events, etc. That kind of stubborn, stupid defiance of science and common sense, from the highest level of our country's leadership, cannot help but filter down to the millions who continue to worship this hairpiece that passes for a man as if he was God His OwnSelf. If we had a president who gave a damn about anyone whose name is not Donald John Trump, I truly believe the COVID-19 story in the U.S. would be very different right now.

Harold wrote: ↑Sat Jul 11, 2020 9:57 pm

Listyguy wrote: ↑Sat Jul 11, 2020 5:42 pm

Jirin wrote: ↑Sat Jul 11, 2020 2:20 pm I don't understand why my country is so dense about wearing masks.

Unfortunately America's been cultivating an anti-science, anti-education culture for years now, and this is the result of that. Large swaths of the population don't believe scientists, the "mainstream" media, or public officials, so the messaging on mask wearing is completely lost on them.

Here in New York, pretty much everyone wears a mask. I think that's probably because of the initial outbreak being so severe here, it scared the stupid out of everybody.

Let's not forget something very, very important here - one member of that "large swath of the population" referenced above is THE GODDAMNED PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, who does not believe in masks, will not wear one unless it is absolutely necessary, does not believe in enforcing ANY kind of social distancing at his appearances and events, etc. That kind of stubborn, stupid defiance of science and common sense, from the highest level of our country's leadership, cannot help but filter down to the millions who continue to worship this hairpiece that passes for a man as if he was God His OwnSelf. If we had a president who gave a damn about anyone whose name is not Donald John Trump, I truly believe the COVID-19 story in the U.S. would be very different right now.

For reference, the US reported more new cases today than all of Asia combined. This is despite the fact that Asia has ~10x the population and ~4x the population density.

People also like to point to the decreasing, albeit not by much, death numbers in the US as an example of a “success”. This bugs me to no end since a) deaths lag behind cases and b) much of the US youth population is completely flouting any regulations and thus are contributing a higher % of new cases. The fact remains that the US has failed to a greater extent than basically everyone else (barring Brazil).

To be fair, the Asian country with the biggest population wouldn’t report the real numbers if they did have a major outbreak.

I live in a Massachusetts where the curve looks like a lot of Asian countries. In businesses mask wearing is strictly enforced here.

The anti science trend is only the 40% of the population that still likes Trump. Internet culture overloads people with so much information much of which is false people just automatically distrust all of it that isn’t what they want to hear.

But even among the science distrusting, people outside the Northeast act like being asked to wear a mask is the same as being asked to wear a ball and chain. It’s a tiny piece of cloth, and the same people who call people snowflakes for having their feelings hurt are the ones bitching the loudest about it,

People in my town frustrate me so much with this. I work at a restaurant, and the dining room is closed but we have drive thru, and despite MULTIPLE SIGNS AND A BARRIER, people still wander into the dining room (we have open bathrooms) . People just don’t seem to care about the pandemic, which is the most frustrating. 130000 people have died in America. That’s the equivalent of everyone in my city dying 28 times over. Imagine that, people. And yet they don’t care.

Holden wrote: ↑Mon Jul 13, 2020 4:17 am People in my town frustrate me so much with this. I work at a restaurant, and the dining room is closed but we have drive thru, and despite MULTIPLE SIGNS AND A BARRIER, people still wander into the dining room (we have open bathrooms) . People just don’t seem to care about the pandemic, which is the most frustrating. 130000 people have died in America. That’s the equivalent of everyone in my city dying 28 times over. Imagine that, people. And yet they don’t care.

Their God King Trump told them it's all a liberal hoax and they believe all those people took cyanide pills to make Trump look bad, or something equally silly.

Second wave has begun in Belgium. Antwerp is in lockdown. Same situation as before plus mouthmasks mandatory outside and there is a curfew. Contact tracing is not performing as it should, it 's a call center, no app. There is not enough testing being done. The governments react quickly now with the lockdown but the support to be able to pinpoint and locate and isolate the corona zones is still not there.

In Finland it's not so bad. Hopefully there's no second wave.

The university I work for has apparently been doing about 2% of the daily national testing in the USA over the last week. They developed a less invasive test and have been requiring those going in to get tested twice weekly. It will be interesting to see how this unfolds. Naturally, we're having a gigantic spike with students returning but hopefully this can help contain it?

Still not sure why we didn't just go online for the semester...

The irony is if we just agreed as a world we'd stay home for 6-8 weeks, after that period we could control Corona well enough that with basic mask wearing and social distancing we could live normally without any Draconian interventions.

The less we comply with regulations the longer we will have to. How could people be so stupid as not to see that?

BleuPanda wrote: ↑Thu Aug 27, 2020 2:55 am The university I work for has apparently been doing about 2% of the daily national testing in the USA over the last week. They developed a less invasive test and have been requiring those going in to get tested twice weekly. It will be interesting to see how this unfolds. Naturally, we're having a gigantic spike with students returning but hopefully this can help contain it?

Still not sure why we didn't just go online for the semester...

I’m actually a student going to college. Part of me feels a little selfish but part of me really wants to leave home and go out into the world. Four of my five classes are online so I guess we’ll see how that goes...

Schools and universities are going to open but yes, it affected the whole world and it is hard to get everything normal like the old days. Even we are expecting the second wave and not confirm when everything could shut down again.

Okay so out of sheer curiosity, has anyone on here actually gotten COVID-19? Two of my family, whom I live with, have gotten it. So far I'm good, though. They didn't get it bad enough to be hospitalized or anything, but it did not seem like a lot of fun.

I'm worried about this winter. My high school has been doing a really good job with the virus; mandatory mask-wearing, disinfecting desks, etc. Most students and teachers are suprised we've lasted this long. But our (American) football season is going to end soon (my school loves football), and it's gotten noticeably colder. I live in one of the worst COVID states, so I feel it's only a matter of time when my school has to go online for at least two weeks. Possibly even longer.

I love staying and doing stuff at home, so last semester when the pandemic first started was a dream for me. We weren't doing meetings (except for math), everything was assigned on Google Classroom, and workloads were light. I know it's selfish for me to say, but I miss that. I'm a bit less enthused about going online this school year, since I'd have to do meetings all day, but I've already gotten back into the in-person routine, so I guess I wouldn't mind too much.

I think a lot about how well counties like Cuba and Vietnam handled COVID-19 compared to the United States. I still think that a big reason for this country’s failure to handle this virus is because of it’s culture of individualism, which is intwined with the failure of capitalism. That’s why a lot of our leaders are still acting like it doesn’t exist. They talk about “opening up the economy” over and over again even though the virus is still getting worse and will continue to. I think this title of a Noam Chomsky book perfectly describes what’s been going on - “profit over people”

If we could act sensibly we would be able to balance opening the economy with stopping the virus. 80% of infections can be traced directly to a super spreader event. People who get together with their families and occasionally go to outdoor dining are spreading it a little, people who never wear masks and go to crowded bars, parties and rallies are spreading it a lot. Get people to put on masks and stop the super spreader events, we have the infection rate under control and still have the economy moving and solve the mental health issues and long term eviction and unemployment problems of lockdown. We could stop 90% of the spreading, AND have the economy running at 90%. If we just had full mask compliance and eliminated big maskless indoor gatherings.

I don't think you can blame the right wing anti-mask propaganda campaign on individualism as a concept. Individualism with responsibility is just as good, what we have is a total lack of personal responsibility for large swaths of the country.

It's not capitalism that's failing us. It's cronyism that is. What we have in the US isn't a free market, it's a market where the big guys have an unfair advantage because of the legalized bribery that is our campaign financing laws. Eliminate Citizen's United, have campaign finance reform, capitalism starts working the way it's intended again.