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

If you have means, support retailers, restaurants, and theaters you want to be around after this.

Kino Lorber and a number of other film distributors, and Alamo Drafthouse and other indie cinemas, are doing programs where one buys tickets for "virtual cinema", where the local theaters promote and get a ~50% cut of revenue for streaming (hosted by the distributors) of what would otherwise be current releases.

I'm presently trying to find whether I've the cables to send Extra Ordinary from my PC to my projector tonight.

for me it's not so much that I don't have means, more that the restaurants I really want to support aren't doing gift cards and aren't in delivery range unfortunately -- in normal times it'd be a short subway trip or a longish but doable walk for pickup, obviously these aren't normal times -- and it would feel incredibly weird and presumptuous to just fill out a contact form like "hey, can I just give you money?"

(despite my best efforts otherwise I'm pretty sure I'm gaining weight, it turns out that baking constantly and no longer walking several miles each day has an effect)

If they give 2k a month like Dems want, I'll probably give half of it to random businesses (the other half to debt)

I was in one of those little Tescos earlier, i.e. the ones with no room and no chance of social distancing, when in wander a couple deep in conversation. They promptly park themselves halfway down one of the aisles, basically preventing anyone else using it, and continue their nose-to-nose conversation but when I overhear the woman saying, "So where do you live? And do you know xxxx?", I realize they don't even know each other! It's London, the part of the UK with by far the highest incidence of COVID-19, so of course no-one is wearing a mask, including the staff in the shop.

If you’re a business with a loyal clientele and you offer something different, a GoFundMe stands a good chance of being successful. There are a couple of restaurants in Stratford that have “pre-sold” dinners at inflated prices for whenever they reopen and reached their goals in a matter of days. So much so that they’ve got enough left over to donate to charity.

What is the effect of a corona sufferer being stuck in a job where they're packing meat. Does it just spread to the other members of the workforce or does it spread to the product?
JUst hearing about it spreading rapidly through the workforce. Does the meat packed get destroyed automatically or does it just get distributed?

O if only there were a government department setting standards for food safety and making and enforcing regulations. Maybe they could even have instead sectors who were empowered to halt production. What a crazy idea, sounds like socialism

(Sorry, not quite apolitical there)

Instead sectors? = inspectors

Mostly other workers and their families. Yes there's some SARS-CoV-2 on the meat, just as there's normally high counts of fecal bacteria from evisceration, but normal cooking would kill these.

You can always eat it blood raw and wash it down with a glass of disinfectant. It'll be reet!

supporting local businesses is what i wanna do! but from these horror stories it sounds like USPS is still under siege

i'm already on the Alamo-At-Home/Virtual Cinema tip, it's good. watched '70s Filipino action trash Wonder Women earlier this week, fun stuff

I am losing all of my patience. If a friend says something that indicates they haven't read every single article ever written about this, I get so frustrated. I know this must be more of a personal failing of mine than of my friends, and yet still I bristle. How to calmly accept the myriad (non fact or science or even truth based) takes without becoming a bitchy know-it-all? I am not an expert, I only know what I read, but some people know so little!

joke's on you for having friends

Wouldn't you have to be specifically looking for coronavirus to detect it on meat, especially if it takes a while for it to come out that Covid is spreading through the workforce anyway?
So was wondering if that was something that up until the point of detection was acting as a vector for wider spreading into the general public. Sounded like it did take a while before the spread inside the factory workforce was discovered as it was & i thought one of the worst things about this was the lack of symptoms during a period one would be spreading contagion.

hoping everything in question was able to be recalled before it spread further.

It’s my understanding that meat is absolutely definitely covered in all kinds of bacteria you do not want to know about, and should always be handled accordingly. This is why we cook it. And wash our hands after handling any raw meat, and wash the inside of the sink after cleaning chicken in it, and so on.

yeah. that's correct. that's why I got angry at Kathy Lee Gifford once for loudly questioning on her talk show why we should wash the sink after washing the turkey/chicken, cos you "cook the bird through"...yeah but the bacteria can get everywhere!

i've def felt woozy after undercooking chicken on my own too

you should have got angry at her for suggesting that you should wash the turkey/chicken at all. stop doing that. then you also don't have to wash the sink!

who cooks?

also i dont even need a reason to be angry at that klg

Never washed chicken in my lif... Arrgh I'm dying!

Ime there’s a very large divide on the subject of washing meat. Health officials say absolutely don’t do it but ppl who think you have to wash meat are extremely convinced of their rightness.

If I have a regular rubbishey chicken to cook I will put it in a brine bath overnight (then marinade for most of a day), otherwise it will be dry and chewy, guess this counts as washing, wouldn't put it in the sink though as that would be insane.

Marinating in spices and Greek yoghurt good. Washing under a tap insanity!

I'm terrified of bringing raw chicken home 1, 2, 3. I don't want to have to bleach the whole kitchen every time.

my grandma from rural KY explained to nyc metro 8 y/o me in detail how to wring a chicken’s neck and then clean it. she did not demonstrate with an actual chicken, but it didn’t seem hygienic or therapeutic at all. I’ve reasonably washed and well cooled that shit ever since.

I have this one friend who keeps posting very whiningly about how we need to "reopen the economy" but that we can do it "gradually." So I was finally like, "Okay, what part of the economy would you propose opening tomorrow that isn't open today?" and he basically had no answer.

it's easy to say bet hedging things like that because it's a nothing statement like "the truth lies somewhere in the middle" that placates both sides, so they don't expect someone to actually ask them for specifics.

the bowling alley thing in GA kinda flummoxes me. like....generally speaking you have 5 people to a lane, even if you forbid people from occupying the lane next to them, what are you gonna do, limit the size of teams to two people and make them sit six feet apart? they'll still probably use the same balls and touch the same shit.

dad news - he's doing much much better. getting up mostly on his own power now, walking with more strength. it's clearly the incision and residual pain in his abdomen combined with his already weak knees that made things hard, but compared to the "jesus christ this is impossible" feelings from last Sunday, he's made so much progress. still acting as a caretaker for a little while longer until I can trust that mom is able to handle on her own.

work news - they're talking about re-opening offices gradually. idk how gradually and I am assuming they'll still let those who don't want to come in work from home, since they've already given the capability. I don't like the idea of people coming in because no matter how far apart you seat people, people always have a reason to come by people's desks.

but my company does usually do a good job of enforcing things like badge wearing, so maybe they'd check masks at the door? that's assuming there'd even be a doorman, which there hasn't been in years.

idk....i'm not down with it.

I am hearing that the rush to reopen has a lot to do with the conservative nature of the GOP not wanting to allow people to claim welfare. Cynical as it may seem/appear/be if people are forced to stay home from being locked down it is a situation forced on them, if there is no lockdown then they are voluntarily avoiding work. If they are doing it voluntarily then they don't qualify for payment.
It's disgusting and pretty dangerous.
Roll on another wave of contagion and whatever excuses follow.

Not sure how you get around businesses being liable if they make their employees work in an unsafe environment.

I think that's part of the same problem. Where the responsibility lies in a situation of a widespread disaster? Would think that there was little a company could do if it is returned to a situation where t has to be competitive to survive as opposed to being held in a network where it is undserstood taht there is a prevailing problem that everybody is avoiding by remaining shut.
& any case where the employee was having to chase up their boss for contravening their safety is presumably somewhat time consuming when there should be a safety net provided by the State if there was a widespread disaster. I thought that was one point of there being a State,other than like history or traditional mores etc.

If you pass the buck down to individual companies you may well be just sinking those individual companies when they can't really do anything about the situation. Not sure if I'd feel the same about massive corporations etc but it's still not an entirely manmade situation.Trying to think what the current phrase for act of God would be.

Thought I'd write up a little report from the trenches in the rural south:

My daughter is the archivist at our little town's museum, or was until early March. The museum director just happens to have been a specialist in pandemic response coordination when he was in the Navy, building on his history degree (emphasis: the history of plagues), so he pretty much saw all this coming in early February and got in the ears of the mayor and board of aldermen. Our state senator, one of the few Dems left in MS state government, arranged for Wayne (the director) to go to Jackson and brief as many state officials as were willing to take a meeting with him, so any failure in the response of MS at the state level isn't because they weren't warned.

Wayne and Amory's city govt. converted the museum to a Pandemic Response Center in early March and closed it to the public. They've been coordinating with local food pantries, first responders, both hospitals in the county, clinics, fire departments, and as many churches as possible. They've set up volunteer grocery runners for at-risk people but the demand isn't meeting the supply — too many old people have a case of Individual Specialness and are doing their own running around, virus be damned. Wayne/PRC has made the museum building an airlock/dropoff point for donations of sanitizing products and such, receiving them all in one spot and distributing to fire, PD, hospital, etc so the recipients aren't hit with a constant stream of well-meaning disease vectors at their door. One nice thing is a strong supply of fresh eggs from lots of chicken raisers for the food pantry.

My daughter, a seamstress since olden days, immediately got a mask pattern, started soliciting fabric donations and set up a small army of little old ladies who were thrilled to be so useful. They have managed to deliver 1200-1500 masks to the hospital, fire and PD, clinics, grocery store employees, all the while stressing that these aren't medical-grade and aren't a substitute for best-practices of handwashing and distance etc. All this while waiting for the official state response to kick in.

The county Emergency Management Agency response only started a couple of weeks ago. The county's EMA person is a total MAGA chud who's done almost nothing to secure PPE and other resources for anyone here, and has gotten her drawers totally twisted up because City of Amory's response has been so much stronger, trying to get Wayne and his operations sidelined now that she's on the job. She's terrible at communicating with and identifying herself to anyone — Wayne has been asking around "Have you been contacted by MCEMA?" and the response is usually "No, but I got a call from D____." (D____ is the MCEMA director.) She finally got a supply of N95 masks and other PPE but decided that none of them would go to first responders because "we're not there yet, it's not that bad yet." That got back to some local/state reporters who called MEMA and asked if that reflected state policy; D____ suddenly reversed course and said OF COURSE first responders would get the supplies they need.

Aberdeen, the city just south of us and the county seat, had to close their fire department because not enough people took this shit seriously and too many firefighters got sick. The food pantry in Nettleton, the town just north of us, had to close for a couple of weeks ago after being overwhelmed but they're back up and running.

tl;dr: shit is wild, some folks are dealing better than others

interesting, ty for that post

Yeah, great post.

Yes, excellent post, my friend.

Interesting to read that, generalised news reports are okay as far as they go but you often get a better sense of how people are responding by hearing a first-person account. Also this isn't social media so you do get to actually see it.

Good point, good post.

Good story yeah.
Just hope that other conservative obstructions elsewhere can be angled out of the way similarly.

Also hope that your one has been good to her word there.

It's distressing that Monroe County has one of the higher number of cases in the state (134), but a lot of that is attributable to outbreaks at two long term care facilities (fortunately, neither of which is the one my mother lives at). Monroe has the 2nd-highest number of cases in LTC facilities; 38% of the county's cases are confined to 2 buildings.

xps thanks all. It's been interesting seeing this with a slight inside-baseball view.

physical therapist came by and had a much less positive view of dad's progress. frustrating that we don't know what to look for and aren't getting a lot of guidance from health professionals, or worse, conflicting. she was concerned at how winded he was during exercises (which hadn't been happening prior to the visit, just this afternoon). she thinks we shouldn't have him walk on his own, thinks he needs a wheelchair, so now we're wheeling him on his wheel walker. questioning what the other home health nurses are saying, as the other phys therapist didn't remotely have that level of concern on his first visit. but he hadn't eaten and hadn't drank his shake before the session today either, so I wonder about dehydration. i think mom is second guessing herself now but she is highly suggestible in these types of situations.

so mom's calling the social worker cos we just wanna know WTF IS BEST COURSE OF ACTION, if it's just "wait and see" on his recovery, or even if it's skilled nursing, or if it's just one of me or my brother being here. i've asked my bro to help during the day because I have work and only have about 5 days of PTO avail right now (one that I'm using on Friday for a mental health break). but apparently his girlfriend's mom had a potential exposure to a COVID patient without knowing it and developed a fever. Of fucking course. her first test was negative, still awaiting second test. which isn't my brother's fault, but means i may have to do it on my own to prevent risk of exposure to my dad (i'm already wearing a mask in the house to be safe). and if I get it or become symptomatic, who is going to help? (or moreso, would my dad get it, and would he survive it - honestly other than diabetes, his numbers are ok). would just like a few hours to myself to decompress.

on the plus side, this is the best time for me to help, with everything shut down, but if/when things do open up later, I'm occasionally going to have to be other places, and if mom can't work, once the fed unemployment is over, their social security isn't enough due to some stupid debt my mom got into (payday loans, multiple), so my brother and I will have to keep paying many of her expenses. they're looking at an assisted living facility, just applied, which would be good.

my mom and I share the same brain, anxiety brains hate chaos and lots of choices/decisions, but we're both relatively calm because it's just comical how stressful things are right now.

This shit on ars Technica:
“ Two weeks before the lockdowns began, my wife and I moved from LA to Chicago to be closer to friends and family. Sadly, all this means we’re even more socially isolated now than we were in LA.

(Oh, two weeks before it became mandatory? Nice, that makes it ok. )

Or, are we? Through games, we’ve been more social than we have been in years. Our more gamer-lite friends who used to not have much time to play games online are now suddenly all-in. We started a Discord server with everybody and have been playing Minecraft, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, or Animal Crossing: New Horizons multiple nights per week. It’s been a blast.”

(So it’s almost like you never left right?)

Sounded like it was a planned relocation, not a get-out-of-dodge.

Yeah... I have new neighbors who just bought a house and moved in a few weeks ago. That's some shitty timing, assuming the same thing.

Not sure how you get around businesses being liable if they make their employees work in an unsafe environment.

iirc trump/gop wants to indemnify businesses in this situation (of course)

the building i'm living in is changing hands... on the 30th? the new owner has yet to speak to me about rent... and they live on the first floor! i think they're not thinking this through so much.

Yeah, you don’t move across a continent on a whim after the pandemic starts.

Great post, Wm.

I had a new roommate move into my pad last week because he was transferring jobs from Alabama down here, and waiting for his house to sell. going to guess it was due to downsizing at his company due to COVID ("we have a job for you, but you gotta move to FL"), but I went back home today to get clothes and there's no sign that the dude stuck around after I gave him his key. room is empty (not even an air mattress), nothing in the bathroom, nothing of his in the fridge, no car.

i wasn't big on living with a new roommate who may or may not be infected, guess I don't have to worry now.