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

yeah, you're right, i'm not sure why i just threw that out there, heh

but in general, i think it's true that all else equal, there's a point where a virus becomes deadly enough that it winds up killing less people overall, just because it doesn't have as much time to spread and the infected people can be identified and quarantined earlier on in the process (unlike covid19, where many are asymptomatic or don't show symptoms for a few days)

So apparently one of my co-workers - though I haven't worked in the same department as him in a long time - has died. No indication of the cause yet, so maybe I shouldn't be jumping to conclusions, but he was fine before all this started, as far as I'm aware. He did suffer pretty badly from arthritis, that's all I know about any underlying health issues, he was probably late 50s? I expect I'll find out more over the next few days. Everyone is a bit shocked.

I don't miss working at all, but I do miss the people I work with.

xpost yeah whenever they talk about ebola and covid they bring up that ebola was so deadly and quick the person was unable to spread it before dying themselves.

Having played Plague Inc the best strategy for a virus is to focus on spreading far and wide then suddenly ramp up some horrible symptoms once it's endemic.

The slow motion virus is key to the particular form of psychic trauma we’ve all gotten to experience.

fwiw, here are Matt DC's guidelines

Sorry to hear that, Tom.

our daycare just announced their plan. they usually have a capacity of 66 kids. they're reopening in june with 24 kids. 3 kids per teacher. drop off is in the car park. parents may not leave the car. teachers will come to car with apron and mask and take kid's temperature, then bring them in. children over 3 must wear a mask. kids will not be allowed to play together. we said "that sounds like the scary adult bits in E.T., see you in ...august?"

also they've raised prices by 33%

xpost yeah whenever they talk about ebola and covid they bring up that ebola was so deadly and quick the person was unable to spread it before dying themselves.

i think that was a statham movie

also you basically had to pee on someone for them to get it

Hey don't kink-shame

^ gets it

It isn't especially difficult to imagine why, even in a pandemic, a food delivery guy might be forbidden from just leaving food in the lobby of a shared building.

not for nothing, but most food delivery services like Doordash, UberEats, Postmates, etc are actively advertising contact-less delivery. Delivery from the restaurant itself might follow different policies, but it isn't like it's not possible. most of my meals have been contactless and they've taken a picture of where they left it on my doorstep so I knew where to find it.

(in the US, that is)

there was one instance where the person wouldn't leave it despite me putting contactless delivery on the form, requiring me to get it out of his hands. It seemed more like it was just his own discomfort of not wanting to leave it though I didn't ask why, I didn't get angry, but I also don't think OL's post deserved the dogpile.

esp given the invectives flung towards other people in public who haven't worn masks or followed social distancing in this same thread. people are stressed out and they're venting much more than usual. not that I'm saying there aren't still lines that can be crossed or that people shouldn't be held accountable for being abusive, but I don't think his posts remotely fell in that category.

it seems like yesterday when a noticeable enough number of ilxors didn't feel like wearing a facecovering in public.

― Yerac, Monday, May 18, 2020 11:02 AM bookmarkflaglink

even actively arguing against the efficacy

― Yanni Xenakis (Hadrian VIII), Monday, May 18, 2020 11:06 AM bookmarkflaglink

Yes, that was back in late February and early March, when our own Surgeon General, the CDC, and other medical professionals were all in lockstep telling us not to bother wearing masks, that they provided little to no protection, and that they were taking supplies away from medical providers. Of course people would react that way afterwards.

However, it's been more than a month and a half (late March/first week of April) since that conventional wisdom was changed, that studies confirmed that you didn't need surgical masks or N-95s, that wearing even cloth masks helped reduce transmission, and the CDC themselves recommended people wear cloth masks in public. and it was clarified that you don't need surgical masks or N-95s, and clarified how you could easily make them at home.

and right now, the primary most people aren't wearing them in public isn't "confusion" or "other people stopping them", it's "defiance", it's "you can't make me". that doesn't mean I think OL's delivery person was one of those "you can't make me wear a mask" assholes, but all of us are angry at that sect of conspiracy-mongering garbage people who "refuse to wear masks", so sometimes anger at those people manifests itself whenever we see anybody not wearing a mask. One of my best friends for the last 15 years, who I consider family, and I got in an argument over this and didn't speak for two days just a week ago, and we both realized we were being stupid and were just stressed out about life.

san dimas high school football rules.
so idk....I don't think venting

*primary reason

what sucks is how the whole "masks don't help" -> "you need a mask to be in public" shift casts doubt upon the whole thing, further confirming to right wing idiots that the CDC doesn't know what they're doing and this is just the flu but hey hydrochloroquine could help

we should be angry at how poorly the CDC, the surgeon general, et al managed the communication on masks, because there's a wide gulf between "we don't know if masks will help, but we're looking into studies" and "DON'T WEAR MASKS!". they could have easily just said "we recommend wearing masks - we're still looking into the effectiveness of wearing them, so you should not stop social distancing, you shouldn't shake hands, you shouldn't hug people, and continue to avoid large gatherings and stay at home when possible", but instead had to make the stupid "masks are pointless" statement, which is impossible to effectively walk back.

in other news, they're imposing mandatory one-week furloughs on all employees who make more than 75k, and will begin offering voluntary furloughs and hours reductions soon at my job. I'm not impacted yet, but I fear layoffs will come shortly after.

fortunately I've just paid off my car sooooo....if it happens, it happens! meanwhile furloughs would still qualify for unemployment presumably.

Bars have been cleared to reopen here with restrictions on Friday. A lot are holding out, particularly places that host music/comedy/theatre, because they're not sure how the rules affect them. However, one performance venue here has bypassed the vagaries and announced that they too will be starting up again with shows on Friday. They seem to have a good plan--masks required (if you don't have one, you can buy one for $1), temperature checks at the door, socially distanced seating at Comedy shows--but they're also hosting...dance parties.

Now I can understand DJ nights looking attractive from a booking standpoint, but...you know? Social contact and everything...

wondering how the strip clubs are going to re-open here

Hazmat suit lap dances

"I think I have a boner right now but it might just be clumping"

https://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2020/04/little-darlings-las-vegas.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1234

oh did you not already hear about the

https://www.thecut.com/2020/05/dancers-drive-through-strip-club-coronavirus.html

our daycare just announced their plan. they usually have a capacity of 66 kids. they're reopening in june with 24 kids. 3 kids per teacher. drop off is in the car park. parents may not leave the car. teachers will come to car with apron and mask and take kid's temperature, then bring them in. children over 3 must wear a mask. kids will not be allowed to play together. we said "that sounds like the scary adult bits in E.T., see you in ...august?"

ours is doing this too though I don't think we're going to send them until July or August if we can. I feel like if one of the parents got it we'd all wind up getting it within a week.

do we know yet why this virus is so relatively harmless for children? I still feel it's smart to hold off on exposing them for as long as we can but idk if my "at least the kids will definitely be fine" confidence is misplaced

July is our deadline. Camps for our kids in Houston open and I’ll be close to running out of time off. I had surgery on my leg mid- february, I can’t WAIT TO GET THE FUCK OUT OF THIS HOUSE. I’m scared that it’s going to shut down again right then. Fuck you Greg Abbott.

I work at a museum that is opening next week and it boggles my mind that we are doing this. Glad I have an excuse to stay home.

I knocked a pint glass that I'd rescued from the street flying yesterday as I picked other things around it up, so had both hands full. It shattered on hitting the floor.
& I realised that it wouldn't be easy to replace it for a while. Not sure how safe either. Used to just pick them up so they didn't leave broken glass all over the street and cos they were useful.

Texas is never shutting down again, Patrick and his people would rather people die en masse than shut down again and they've pummeled Abbott into it.

not that people aren't already dying en masse but a million Texans could die and they'd just shrug their shoulders

I walked past a cafe that was open yesterday, the first time in I guess two months?

It was a small cafe, a couple sitting in the window seats and then a few other people in. No masks as how can you be in a cafe with masks, table definitely not 2 meters away!

People have been compliant with masks for sure, and yes numbers are lower than US or UK - but Portugal isn't Vietnam or Slovenia, nowhere near it.

Had to put down my dog yesterday, which had the added weirdness of social distancing. In order to let us be with him as he died the vet administered the injection through a long tube from an adjoining room.

That sucks dowd :(

oh dear that sounds bad, sorry for your loss dowd.

frogbs, the risk is low and i don’t want to add anxiety but there’s a kawasaki-disease-like syndrome associated with covid that’s already killed three kids in new york.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/13/health/coronavirus-children-kawasaki-pmis.html

Slightly disappointed to see taht the grass which has been allowed to grow for the last couple of months has been getting cut today.
NOticed the main park in the centre of town was still being allowed to grow a coupl eo fdays ago. THought it was to allow bees etc to propagate
I liked the sight of allowing nature to take its own course. Noticed taht a number of plants by the roadside as I walk up to th esupermarket that I don't like seeing cut back have been allowed to do their own thing. Now the main park local to me has had all its grass stretches mowed wonder if tehy've go tmuch longer.

but today was two days after the ease of teh lockdoiwn officially started.

also noticing more traffic around on the main road up to the supermarket now. So hoping that the break that nature has had for the last coupl eof months isn't coming to an end.

"AstraZeneca books orders for 400m doses of Oxford vaccine"

looks promising (the report i read said 1bn). oh, here:

"AstraZeneca said it was capable of producing one billion doses of the AZD1222 vaccine this year and next."

oh, wait...

"A high-profile potential vaccine for COVID-19 being tested by researchers at Oxord University failed to protect vaccinated monkeys from being infected by the virus."

"The vaccine candidate, ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, being tested is a weakened form a common cold virus"

we've seen this before, people reporting possible numbers and the real numbers being nothing like that or the the final x tonnes, y hundred thousand things being less than useful

still, good to see autechre got the tricky vaccine naming job.

(are AZD1222 and ChAdOx1 different things?)

I can't even with Florida.

There was a data breach at FL DEO (the Unemployment group). An hour before the news broke, my mom got a vague email from them saying they needed more info from her, to log on ASAP to get the info, and there was of course no message waiting.

In the same email, her permanent password was provided in big bold letters, and they told her it was her temporary password, and to change it.

This was apparently DEO's way of notifying people of the breach. By sending them an email sharing their current password and not saying anything about a breach.

News reporters began asking for copies of the email so I sent it to 3 of them.

Also my mother got a call saying her negative COVID test was unreliable and to make another appt.

I'm not like upset or anything, but I have sharp stinging pains in my chest which are typical anxiety symptoms for me.

LOL FL.

wow. that is... not good

the humorous thing is mom doesn't need credit monitoring cos she already has it from another data breach, lol.

local bar/concert venue which has hosted probably the greatest number of underground metal shows in the Orlando/Winter Park area since 2012 is in trouble and doing a GoFundMe. I kicked in, would hate to lose them.

but of COURSE, amidst all of the goodwill and community coming together, there are assholes screaming about how the bar should sue the government for lockdowns and how they were unnecessary. Can't escape this toxic shit anywhere right now and it pisses me the fuck off.

If anything they should be suing the federal government for not giving them a sufficient lifeline (I guess they didn't get the PPC or small business loans or weren't eligible).

my swanky new mask comes with an unfortunate side-effect: my glasses slip suddenly off my face without warning, necessitating a lurching “save” each time

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/ef/a0/d4/efa0d4c1643258d0b4fd6572613ab8b1.jpg

I slept on my now quite knackered glasses last night and they keep slipping off me. Got the specsavers letter in january reminding me my of my NHS coupons for a test + new ones are activated. What is the rush I thought

maybe they weren’t yet aware of the extent of the data breach and were asking people to update their passwords as a precaution while they investigated?

It's pouring rain here, which I'm happy about as maybe it'll keep people from flocking to the beach.

Apparently it WASN'T related to the data breach, and the data breach happened in March-April, and impacted less than 100 people, and it only came out as news because they hid it from the public initially.

So DEO has confirmed that the email my mother got IS legit, and it tells her they received her application and she needs to take action and log into her site, and provided her current password as her Temp password.

She logged in, no action needed. Tons of existing applicants apparently got this email and had the same experience, to the point where they thought it might be a phishing email.

We have decided to ignore it for now.