All things COVID-19

[FlameBlade]

Oh, it's talked about, just not in the news. Furthermore, it appears to be tactics of some police to intentionally remove masks and clump a hundred of protestors in small quarters.

Problem is, police rioting is a big problem here. The protests are also about inequality in healthcare as well, but just that police made it that much more glaring.

[akiva]

Back at school to pack up my stuff. They staggered the teachers coming in, so it's mostly empty. It feels really weird.

[Phoebe]

As July approacheth, worries approach regarding whether my kids will be asked to go back to school and how we will manage the inevitable disconnect between my judgment of safety (which flows from what I hear from experts, period, and not on how people and politicians feel in their whimsies on a given day) and the dates school will be opened.

Right now lying by omission to my youngest kid because birthday parties are in full swing with these fucking dipshits and yes I must curse.

[poorpete]

So multiple NFL players from Texas and a congressman from South Carolina have the coronavirus. These are supposed to be the safest people. And the ones that benefit from lots of testing. It's not yet like March 11 (Tom Hanks, NBA cancellation) but I'm worried we're heading back to that level.

We have been sheltering since March, and don't plan any major changes to that. Though protesting for Black Lives on Sunday was the first time we were in a large (spaced-out and mask-wearing) group.

[Kyle]

I got antibody tested last week- I was neg/neg: meaning, I don't have it currently and I've never had it.

Bummer.

[Tahlvin]

Saw an interesting story about a US Army recruiting class. 640 recruits that showed up for training, they tested all of them, and 4 tested positive. All 640 recruits were quarantined for 14 days, and the 4 positive ones were isolated and treated. After the 14 day period, they started training, and were following appropriate protocols: wearing masks, social distancing, etc. After 8 days of training, one of the recruits was showing symptoms and tested positive. So they went back and retested the entire class. Of the 640 recruits, 143 of them, or 22%, now tested positive. My takeaway from the article was two-fold: 1) testing still has too many false negatives, so some of the recruits had to have been positive at the time they arrived but were not isolated, and 2) masks and social distancing are limited protection to prolonged exposure.

[Phoebe]

Yes! I have been driven crazy, luckily not a long trip, by the rigid binary thinking about masks. Why must we wear them if the protection offered is limited? Why must we keep distancing if we are wearing them? I cannot deal with that circle of hell. Then you just have the "little Timmy deserves a party!" crowd. Like Trump yard signs, it's a self-marking mechanism I shouldn't complain about.

The ones that really pain me are the elderly who cannot keep the damn mask on their face and cannot stop fiddling with it or literally lifting it up to speak, as if we just cannot get their point without seeing their lips move, and then the other type of elderly I encounter who are such fatalists that they don't even bother trying, since we're all going to die in misery anyway. No, no, no no no.

[Eliahad]

Played a gig last night. I have been playing church services from time to time, but this was the first gig I played for people I didn't know. It also happened to be a church service that was being recorded for a...well...one of those churches where everyone gets up and sways because the lord fills them with the desire to do so. I have been to, and played for these sorts of services before and I knew what to expect and all the tropes that were necessary for a service such as this. If that's how people want to express their faith and spirituality I can, at least, respect that.

The reason I'm posting here is because of the following:

This was not being recorded in a large faith venue. It was being recorded in a small, industrial style event space. The chairs were not spaced out six feet apart...maybe 4, for some of them. When more than the allowed number of people showed up, they were not turned away, they were told to go stand at the back. There was singing. There was close talking. There were 30 people eating food in a crowded room at the break between rehearsal and service. I was probably the oldest person there. Maybe 2nd or 3rd.

There was one mask. Mine.

I accepted the work, last week, and backing out of the gig would mean my reputation would be shot. And besides, I have no unemployment protection because (see all the other reasons.) So I played the gig. I washed my hands constantly. I used hand sanitizer. I stayed by myself as much as I could. If I catch the virus because of this, I'm going to be so pissed.

On the bright side, I guess, I won't be there tomorrow, when they are recording another one...with a choir.

[Tahlvin]

It's amazing how most people have just seem to have given up caring, or just don't think it's really a thing anymore, or assume it's gone away.

[Kyle]

Well Austin, Dallas and Houston are explaining to people how we might spike into another New York, so interest here- at least in the big cities- has increased. But that still doesn't mean people are wearing masks.

[Mike]

Our governor said he will withhold funding from any government offices that require masks.

[akiva]

[Mike]

That's apparently his measure of control over county and local offices. Three or four weeks ago, many of our county offices and courthouses were operating by appointment only to limit the number of people in the building. So he issued an order that he would withhold funding from any office that wasn't completely open to the public. Then many areas went to mask requirements and especially in hotspots, they would have a screening process to enter. So now he is threatening funding again to ensure that no government workers take any safety precautions.

John Oliver described him best as Dime Store Lex Luther.

[Phoebe]

[Stan]

When I thought 100,000 deaths, I took into account laziness and incompetence but I failed to take into account intentional stupidity and the making of disease control a political issue, like the above issue of forbidding the requirement of masks. And the whole thing of sicking right wing militias on the capitols of democratic governors. Trump followers are literally acting pro-pandemic.

With some states seeing a steady flow of cases and others seeing increases, I just don't know when this will end.

[Phoebe]

But take heart, because even though most Republicans say they agree with the Pro-Pandemic positions, this is a huge wedge issue dividing their party and possibly responsible for the surprisingly large number of older voters who are currently polling for Biden. I work on it as much as possible with whoever will listen. You're dealing with people who will not listen to reason, but they definitely listen to fear, and one reason they like Trump is because they listen to fear. So they just need to be afraid of something that he's not saving them from, and we have that right now, and it is costing him some votes. That's why his dirty little minions are trying so hard to make the election about some kind of fantasy race war, because they have to do something to make their people more terrified of the Other than they are of the disease. That's not really an uphill battle for them, but the benefit of being scared of the disease is that it's something actually likely to kill you.

[Stan]

This graph demonstrates the lack of disease control in the U.S.



The EU also has about a 40% greater population compared to the U.S.

[FlameBlade]

Would say we're number 1, but I think it's now Brazil.

[poorpete]

I wonder if this should be a PSA that would actually knock some sense into people (to those who "don't kill our grandparents" have failed)

"Socially distance and wear a mask, so we can have football in the fall"

I guess it's my kind of way to say, umm, football is not happening in the fall.

We might be moving into "Phase 4" in our region, which means more stuff open, but not malls and not gyms. And social distancing in effect. Movie theaters also remain closed in this phase. If theater chains knew this was going to last this long, they would have invested in land to create quick drive-ins ready for July. That said, they should invest now to create drive-ins to be ready later in the Summer.

[Phoebe]

The football thing is probably the only effective tactic left.