Mostly Apolitical Thread for Discussing/Venting our Rational/Irrational COVID-19 Fears and Experiences in 2020

The last time I was really sick was a year ago--throwing up so bad they forced me to go home. (Found out it was something going through my school.) Nothing to do with present circumstances except on a personal level: I took solace early on during this thing that I had an exceptionally strong immune system (zero sick days off in 20 years of teaching--a few times I struggled through not having a voice and should have stayed home), but, at 58, maybe that was a signal that it's not as strong as it once was or I think it is.

If you take everything we know about this right now, what we don't know, and what is theorized or suspected but not confirmed, and then mix that with the range of outcomes, from no symptoms to mild cold to bad flu to death, I don't think you could come up with a virus more capable of seriously messing with mental health.

Idk man I've been thinking we're pretty lucky all things considered. If it was as nasty as, say, ebola but just as transmittable, the entire world would've lost its collective mind already.

I think Ebola is less transmissible in part because it quickly kills most people who contract it

In part, yes. The other part being it's via body fluid only.

Which is a big part of why I find this so unnerving--how much more transmittable it is. (Ignorance is bliss: being completely honest, I barely gave a second's thought to SARS, MERS, or Ebola.)

But if its mortality rate was higher… I'm just thankful it's not, is all I'm saying. We would prob already be in a mad maxian hellscape.

I'm not a worrier in general I guess. If I get it, I get it. If I have a nasty case of it due to being immuno-compromised, that would suck. Driving myself crazy with worry is not only pointless but can actually have negative consequences eg the resultant stress making me even more vulnerable its effects.

I've passed through about nine different phases the past week; stoicism was in there somewhere. As I posted on the worst-part-of-getting-old thread a few months ago, I've been generally panicky about things health-related the past year or two, so I'm vulnerable on that front.

been seeing comments that zoom is basically spyware -- is this t/f

Only on mac and they seem to have fixed it (is the results of a minute's googling)

If you take everything we know about this right now, what we don't know, and what is theorized or suspected but not confirmed, and then mix that with the range of outcomes, from no symptoms to mild cold to bad flu to death, I don't think you could come up with a virus more capable of seriously messing with mental health.

― clemenza

i think the high rate of infectiousness this virus possesses is pretty damaging, but speaking as someone who has serious mental health issues, who catastrophizes, who can very vividly envision all sorts of terrible things happening, i can definitely think of more terrifying viruses. i don't have kids and i _still_ thank god every day this doesn't affect kids, like, at all.

I'm less worried about getting the virus -- other than the lab thing I'm basically healthy -- and more worried about its plunging the world into the next great depression

I'm less worried about getiing the virus than becoming a conduit for it

but also yeah I'm kind of worried about getting the virus too

I don't care for being ill, personally, and am hoping to avoid it.

xp -- also worried about being a conduit for it but the worry is mitigated somewhat by the fact that there is zero way to know

they are going to need to establish a completely separate non-covid/non-pandemic healthcare system in order to still treat people's regular emergencies/illnesses.

I'm less worried about getting the virus -- other than the lab thing I'm basically healthy -- and more worried about its plunging the world into the next great depression

― like, I’m eating an elephant head (katherine), Sunday, March 22, 2020 6:44 PM (fifty-four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

same here

I thought this was a good read about exercise during this time: https://elemental.medium.com/this-is-the-exercise-your-body-needs-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak-8b924c92e861

and it kind of touches on what I read earlier at the onset about doing intense exercise while feeling ill being very bad.

this was the top highlight
"When there’s a novel virus like Covid-19 and no vaccine or cure available, athletes—yes, athletes—tend to be in the vulnerable category as well, Nieman says. If you’ve been marathon training or preparing for a century bike tour or pushing yourself really hard, doing long training sessions of two or three hours, “you are in the group of immunocompromised individuals,” he says."

xpost also same here.

i'm less worried about the economy after this than i was in 2007 mainly bc there's a clear and explicable reason for the economic downturn right now one that will leave lasting effects but don't implicitly suggest critical failures within the system whereas in 2007 that seemed more obviously the product of a broken economic system; i have seen arguments that there are parts of our economy that are failing that shouldn't but (iow suggesting some of these more systemic and critical failures) but tbph i'm not convinced; this is a unique moment of unique circumstances.

don't implicitly suggest critical failures within the system

I HAVE NO WORDS.

Snowed today, and our Rabbi posted "Because, really, why not?"

I HAVE NO WORDS.

when you shut down your society to deal with a pandemic there is going to be economic loss it doesn't matter how you've structured your economy

"I stopped him and said, 'Look, this isn't a movie. You are not Will Smith in I Am Legend. Go home."
This is the updated compilation of Italian Mayors losing it at people violating #Covid19 quarantine. Yes, subtitles are accurate. pic.twitter.com/60V4Csuonb

— 🌈 (@protectheflames) March 22, 2020

pic.twitter.com/ojtnn2dr77

— David Crosby (@thedavidcrosby) March 22, 2020

https://www.esquire.com/uk/culture/a31776624/f-scott-fitzgerald-letter-quarantine-influenza/

Oh nevermind

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/this-side-of-paradise-a-letter-from-f-scott-fitzgerald-quarantined-in-the-south-of-france

in more positive news, my buddy with the cafe is a huge Firefly fan, and mentioned to me today that Jewel Staite just lowered her price, but lamented that he couldn't afford it, and he'd wanted a personalized vid from her. whatever yr opinion of Cameo, me and his gang of best friends got him one today as a 'pick me up' talk, as he's trying to figure out how to get through the next few months, and he cried. we also donated the same amount roughly to his cafe.

really hoping some form of relief other than "small business loans" is coming to businesses like this so the tears don't become tears of a different kind later. but it was a good moment for a Sunday night.

sometimes McSweeneys is like the Borowitz Report for MFAs

New Zealand is going into full lockdown in the next 48 hrs which I’m happy about.

up until now, the people i was most concerned about were in my wife's immediate family, as well as immunocompromised and elderly people i know. i wasn't concerned about my own because we're a very small family, and my parents (both in their late 60s now) were actually taking it seriously.

but now, once again, the cumulative effect of fox news, rush limbaugh, alex jones, religious radio, and hanging out with their bullshit older friends (all #MAGA people) have warped their minds. earlier today i got a text from my sister with some news about my mom's evolving views:

https://i.imgur.com/7ZIpROp.png

as i frequently discuss in various 3 am blackout drunk texts on ilx, i have struggled to understand my parents and try to connect with them as an adult. but this is the first time i've been frightened for them. they are exactly the kind of people who would ignore everyone around them and just hang out with friends (particularly their bible study/#MAGA friends).

i read this morning that he tears up official documents when he’s finished with them, and he has a team of people whose job it is to sellotape them back together, and that he’s been told to stop tearing up the documents and he won’t stop

The big thing that bugs me is how many people hear part of what the experts say, but then draw their own conclusions that aren't supported by them. Bad received wisdom travels fast.

Like there's a friend now telling people not to touch any packages for 24 hours because the virus can live on cardboard for 24 hours. When experts are saying it's unnecessary as that's not believed to be a method of transmission. (I don't fault anybody who wants to be extra safe, mind).

Or people who defended the beachgoers by saying "well it's harder to spread outside" (dafuq?). Presumably due to the non-peer reviewed studies that show transmission is more difficult in heat and humidity but nobody in their right mind is saying it's safe to be outside in groups.

my 71 year old father is all-in on he's not susceptible to this thing bc of that dumb blood type study that has been going around, so i just gave him a call urging him to take all the precautions he would otherwise be taking as if the study never existed and he was basically like "lol sure bud, i definitely will". he lives in a retirement home where one person has already tested positive.

Can't handle this

Every day is Groundhog Day except it's 9/11

But instead of an acute event, it'll play out over a year

Not the aftermath, the EVENT

I CAN'T HANDLE THIS

I'm pretty sure you can. you just never had to before this. allow yourself to surprise you at your innate ability to handle a global shitstorm.

I was getting into a pretty bad headspace so I went out for a three-mile jog and I feel about a thousand times better now.

Living thru the aftermath of 9/11 was Hell on earth enough. I really don't know if I can handle it if things get really bad

xp Doin that tmrw

what's the best way to put together a will quickly? i know there are do-it-yourself options but any that are better than others?

That's tough to hear Karl, and I don't know what the answer is. I do know that pushing back on this stuff never works, the only way in is to sort of agree with them and try and build on that and finesse them ("what if its a chinese bio weapon designed to take out lots of people?") but even thats unlikely to work. I don't know, but I think any answer has to be something along the lines of completely agreeing with them and saying the logical conclusion to that is physical distancing? Or asking them if what they're saying means you should physical distance

I've tried countless times now to explain my elderly mum the gravity of this situation and it hasn't worked. You can only do your best, which is exactly what she keeps saying to me when I say why the hell aren't you taking self-isolation seriously? She thinks it will all be over in a month at which time I'll look like a rather silly alarmist windbag and be embarrassed for making such a big fuss over nothing. I'm ready for the worst news because up until a couple of days ago her partner (who lives in a separate house) has been going to pubs, peak time buses, a casino and the public library just about every day and says i talk a load of bollocks because I said he should be barred from her house for being such an irresponsibly reckless spreading renegade. He really ought to know better and he nearly died of pneumonia himself a decade ago.

Mordy this is explicitly not the thread for it but the “economic loss” visited upon a country will be differently distributed according to how fucked or not its safety net is, which to my mind is very definitely part of “the system”, the entire web of precarious work, poor health care, no sick leave, derisory unemployment money etc and the failure of that system is being revealed just as inexorably by this crisis as the casino banking system was revealed by the collapse of the housing market in 2007/8; i reckon this one touches more people and will be harder to “fix” as technical solutions are largely unavailable. the only proper solutions involve confrontations on an ideological scale not seen since the 1930s

in other news I’m feeling healthy and have only thought about throwing my kids out the window twice today so far

Tracer otm

On the economy, not on the kids

My father-in-law, a mathematician but also an evangelical Christian, has gone snowflake on this, whining about the overreaction and saying that if his dumb university locks him out of his office then he’ll just quit teaching his courses. He’s also afraid that the Dems might win because of this and make public universities free, threatening his dumb private university’s continued viability. He’s happy to see people out shopping (this is west Michigan which explains a lot) rather staying home like sheep. He is normally extremely quiet and mild, so this is all quite alarming. We’ve know he’s right-wing (writes in Colin Powell for president every election) but...well, boomer.

Does this spread worse in rain or shine?
Does every heatwave mean more people automatically congregating in a virocentric manner?

Lost my shit yesterday at the news of my mother's neighbour deciding that yesterday was the day to invade her personal space with some complete next-door-neighbour bullshit. The neighbour in question came back off a cruise a few days ago (!!!) and is by all accounts one of the people who thinks this is all blown out of proportion.

Have generally been keeping it together pretty well and the social distancing thing has been going as best it can, probably, but that was the first everyday thing to have made me genuinely furious.

xpost - it's going to be a problem when the sun really comes out, yes. Especially in Britain where people go crazy at the sight of the sun.