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

xp
Inside, I'm pretty sure, with masks (when not at your table) and distancing.

My wife is bugging the hell out of me by nagging incessantly about me following up with the census worker application I made in February, iirc. They finally got back to me in maybe very early April about the position, just the usual door-to-door job, but even back then I was a little wary of how fast the interview was and how they were unable to answer what few questions I had. A lot of census prep was put on hold, for clear reasons, but now things seem to be moving again, yet obviously there are still other moving parts in play as well, and I'm just not that comfortable going door-to-door in the middle of a pandemic nagging others to fill out their census forms. On one hand I'm torn, because I know the census is important. But on the other hand, it's not that hard to fill out the census form, so that leads me to my preconceived notions of the sorts of people currently blowing off the census, who in my mind are the same people that would blow off wearing a mask (for example) and therefore are not the sort of people I want to spend hours every day hounding.

So: are my concerns rational or irrational?

Uhhh Idk who lives in the place(s) you would be going but your ideas of who doesn't/hasn't filled out their census seem extremely strange to me? But like I said, idk. The area where I live has one of the lowest response rates for all of NYC but it also has a TON of barriers to the process. Like people who rent and move often don't get their mail. Or recent transplants don't think the census has to do with them because they're not from the places where they live/are basically transient. Like ppl don't have internet access/have low quality access, or a lot of people being elderly and not having/understanding the technology to reply online. Like undocumented ppl who have an enormous amt of distrust, rightly so; even though as of now the census doesn't put them at risk, would YOU want to tell this government about yourself??! And so on. But maybe the demographics are different where you are.

I really wish Andrew WK still had his advice column.

My impression has been that a lot of community organizations who got funding to promote the census process this year don't really know how to approach it, logistically. They might not know what "success" looks like (I literally interviewed for a job as an outreach organizer and I asked the hiring CBO what would constitute success and they literally said "We don't know" because the local govt who was informing them hadn't given them any way to gauge progress--it's not as simple as "number of people who have filled out their census"). And Idk about other places but in NYC even after a lot of the community orgs started the process to hire ppl with the promised funding, the money didn't actually drop for months and no one could move forward.

There are lots of reasons why people might not respond, running the gamut from it just slipping their mind to tin-hatters. You do have the option of responding by mail or phone in addition to online, which makes it pretty accessible, but you're right, there's a lot of reasons it may not be on someone's radar. I dunno. I think going door to door in the best of circumstance makes me a little uneasy (I certainly don't like people knocking on my door), and yeah, I think the elderly or people who don't know how to use the internet *do* seem the sort either more at risk for covid or not following covid precautions. For sure as we have all anecdotally described, we see questionable behavior out and about on a daily basis, so I expect people in their own homes to be even more lax. And like you said, undocumented people (for example) might rightly have an enormous amount of distrust, so ... are those the doors I want to knock on and harass, even if it's to their benefit? I guess I can always just take the gig and quit if it makes me uncomfortable. Or maybe it will be a good experience, who knows.

You can just talk to people through the window I would say? Or a screen door? I know it's extremely weird, I had to get ppl to sign a petition for something I'm doing right as the threat of spread was getting real, but I had a pre-set deadline that I couldn't fight, so I got gloves and a sealed bag of new pens, and texted ppl ahead of time to ask if it was okay for me to come to their door so they could sign. Obv the census isn't like that, you canvas everyone. Have you done public outreach before? Like tabling or flyering? Ime there's sort of a relentless optimism/positivity that it helps to have in service of your mission.

Yeah, I've done door to door political stuff before (sucked, imo) and I also do (or did, before covid) home delivery for the food pantry, which is/was a lot more rewarding. I find the political stuff super depressing, honestly. 100 million people didn't vote in the last presidential election, for all sorts of reasons, but that number is so huge that a good hunk of them totally could have but didn't, and the cynic in me feels like a knock on the door wouldn't change that. Or maybe it would, I have no idea.

Josh I applied too and was hired, was fingerprinted and jumped through all the hoops, and then when the lockdown happened I just kind of forgot about it. Then a month ago they followed up to make sure I was still interested and I said yes...which isn't entirely true. I haven't heard back since but I will probably take a pass on doing that any time in the near future for safety concerns...

i applied to census as a statistician back in may 2009, and found out i was approved for the next stage of the job interview process in summer of 2010. they are moving at light speed on your applications

I'm actually waiting to be fingerprinted right now. We'll see what comes of it.

I had blown off the follow-up phone calls as well, then they just scheduled a fingerprinting for me anyway. Honestly I blew that off yesterday, because they don't allow you to cancel, only reschedule! And I tried to reach a human being for an hour and was never able to speak to anyone. So here I am the next day, giving it a shot.

may as well keep your options open as long as possible

My wife is bugging the hell out of me by nagging incessantly

*siren* sexist language alert *siren*

My impression has been that a lot of community organizations who got funding to promote the census process this year don't really know how to approach it, logistically.

in the last class i taught f2f with my students, a guy we had hired to work with my school to boost latinx response to the census came in and told us how important it was and i was happy bc i <3 the census
i remember everything about that class because it might be my last music class ;_; we had a big initiative and now we have...nothing

The library was going huge on the census this year—it seemed like it was going to be our priority for the spring—and then Covid happened. Not sure what’s going to happen now that so much time is lost and people’s priorities are understandably not on the census.

i'm curious what conclusions you draw from that (just the figures in the image, sorry. i'm being lazy)?

i think it's kind of in the eye of the beholder, given the way in which the data was collected contains large and unknown biases. but i will say i was surprised at how small the numbers of covid cases were in an absolute sense, especially among the teachers.

apparently she collected the data in part because of this graph

https://cdn.substack.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdc74aef7-d8a1-4c65-aab7-f2b6c49d7187_1256x722.jpeg

she says

What these Opportunity Insights graphs tell me is that we have to find a way to improve learning outcomes and, realistically, I think this means we have to find a way to open schools. And yet we need to do it safely. I do not want to be a broken record, but it is a travesty that we are not collecting more data to understand how child care is spreading the virus. We must do this. It is simply not fair to children not to.

which i think is extremely otm (see https://emilyoster.substack.com/p/covid-19-learning-loss-and-inequality)

A darkly humorous standby of coronavirus conversations is referring to the pre-pandemic era as The Before Time. For my latest @WSJ column, I look at the history of that science-fiction trope. https://t.co/pLoBTEzfKN

— Ben Zimmer (@bgzimmer) June 19, 2020

So: are my concerns rational or irrational?

I worked for the Census for a summer in 2006 (a Census Test, but in practice the same job). If you're an enumerator you get assigned a bunch of addresses and have to make six attempts to complete their interviews. If they won't answer the door or talk to you in person, you can try and track down their phone number and call them. Or you can get the info from a proxy respondent, like a landlord, apartment manager, or even a neighbor. I conducted a lot of interviews standing at a gate or through an open window, so you could observe social distancing and still get a lot done. If someone will give you their phone number by shouting through the door, you can just call them right there from the front yard and get it done, no contagion at all. I'd imagine during quarantine that a lot of interviews will start with tracking down a phone number and attempting to complete over the phone. Or you could leave a note on their front door with your phone number so they could call you. I'd recommend joining NextDoor for your assigned area and introducing yourself as a Census Taker.

There was no "typical" non-respondent, I ended up talking to all kinds of people. Got threatened, got propositioned, got offered a lot of bong hits. Apartment managers were the worst, because for some reason they resented having to deal with us and would attempt to evade or blow us off constantly. Joke's on them, I got paid hourly and so posting up in their fancy waiting areas was just easy money. I'd be given a quota to complete each time I met with my manager, and usually I'd get admonished for finishing too quickly... the managers wanted to the work to continue since it was high-paying ($15-17 hour) so they didn't want us to rush.

Oh yeah, we had a couple 3-4 hour training classes, got shadowed by another enumerator for a day or so, then they let us out on our own. I made friends with my fellow crew members and we shared tips (and drinks). Sometimes we'd team up, although I'm not sure we were supposed to do that. Your success will depend on being creative about getting information and having good people skills. I thought it was fun and I'd absolutely do it again (even during quarantine) if I didn't have a full-time job.

I know it's long past time to whinge about masks, but was out in Cambridge just now and whatever traces of distancing and mask-wearing there were left last week are already fading away, people seem genuinely to think that the crisis is completely over and they can get back to normal.

it's all part of the cunning plan to have a second summer spike before the second winter spike, sort of like when you take your coat of death off indoors, so you'll feel the benefit when you put it back on again and brave the cold.. no that doesn't make sense, but nothing does at the moment!

In mid-March:

Sir Patrick said it is “eye-catching” to order the cancellation of mass gatherings and sporting events but that the chances of contracting the disease by attending such occasions are slim.

He told the BBC: “Mass gatherings do have some impact, it is not that they don’t do anything if you stop them.

“But they are very much more minor than the other ones.

“The most likely place you are going to get an infection from is a family member, a friend, someone very close in a small space, not in the big space.”

So what have we got?

- No sporting events
- Friends visiting in gardens
- Shops open
- Distancing soon to go down to 1m
- All schools back in September

Good luck, England...

... here, hold on, I live there.

Yeah Cambridge is bad. I had a look at market square (from a distance) and it was a fucking nightmare - it’s claustrophobic there at the best of times so it would be impossible to have all the stalls open and maintain social distancing, but nobody is bothering. We were the only ones wearing masks when we went into boots, & in the next aisle someone loudly sneezed. I mean that’s gonna happen, it’s hay fever season, but imagine if anyone was arsed to cover their mouths. The will has just completely drained away in a really short space of time. That’s a direct result of the govt’s strategy obv, but I can’t help thinking what a miserable fucking country if we can’t do this one thing to keep people safe. Never want to hear any big society in it together bromides again

xpost

Joke's on them, I got paid hourly and so posting up in their fancy waiting areas was just easy money.

Joke was actually on you, since it was your tax money paying for your time, lol. (sigh)

I'm actually still not entirely sure what the status of census field operations is right now. Most recent thing I saw (Saturday) was this:

Based on continuing assessments of guidance from federal, state and local health authorities, the U.S. Census Bureau is suspending 2020 Census field operations. The Census Bureau is taking this step to help protect the health and safety of the American public, Census Bureau employees, and everyone who will go through the hiring process for temporary census taker positions. The Census Bureau continues to evaluate all 2020 Census field operations, and will communicate any further updates as soon as possible.

In addition, we are working diligently to provide additional information on how and when you will be trained. In some cases, training will be delayed in order to maintain public safety. Training will include social distancing measures. Please be patient as the training details are finalized. We will provide more information as it becomes available.

Joke was actually on you, since it was your tax money paying for your time, lol.

I saved taxpayer money completing those interviews! If I'd given up, it would have gotten passed up to my manager to deal with, and she got paid more than I did. It was really the apartment managers that wasted your money, but billable time for dealing with recalcitrant citizens is a fixed Census expense. Consider it public education about our civic and Constitutional duty. Speaking of managers, get in early in the first wave of enumerators so you can get promoted to field manager in the next phases and supervise a team instead of just doing interviews. Pays a bit better and involves less door-to-door (but harder door-to-door, since you have to mop up the troublesome addresses).

It's a pretty inscrutable process so far, tbh. Granted, there are extenuating circumstance, but I've spoken to exactly one census person for maybe three minutes in the last five months.

I think if you pass the background check you're pretty much guaranteed to at least end up in a paid training session, and if you do well there you've got the job. They hire like half a million people. You'll get a call when they start enumerating.

Found out a bit more about the circumstances behind the COVID-19 related death of one of my work colleagues. He had gout and arthritis, so I believe that made him more vulnerable to infection. He lived on his own but spoke to his brother on the phone every day. When he hadn't phoned for 24 hours, his brother went round to his flat and found him dead.

Fuck.

globe in denial

Went in for an antibody test several weeks ago. Negative. Donated blood last week through the Red Cross, which also tested for antibodies. Positive. Should I toss a coin to confirm one way or the other?

Capitolfest will be happening 8/14-16, according to the Capitol Theatre (Rome, NY). I'd previously sworn I'd go if it happened, but....They are promising that they will issue full refunds if they have to cancel because a second shutdown.

So it appears that anything going from the New York area to Chicago is among the hardest hit with USPS delivery times. Pretty much the exact same issue I had a few months ago is happening again. Got an email that my item was shipped on June 3rd, for the first few days the tracking was pretty normal and showed anticipated delivery on the June 8th. Didn't bother checking again until the 10th, but at that point it just switched to "In Transit to Next Facility" and the anticipated delivery date went away, which is where it still sits today.

Just interesting to narrow in on the issue, since in the last month I got something from Austin that took about a week to get here and another from Canada that took about a week and a half.

I would love for Djokovic to retire because of his refusal to be vaccinated. I would love never have to see his stupid face again.

― Yerac, Monday, April 20, 2020 5:25 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

gotta admire his dedication to not getting vaccinated, luring some of the top 20 to a bullshit tournament so that he and a few others get covid.

i don't follow tennis very closely - what is Djokovic's deal? is he a coronavirus hoaxer kinda guy or does he just like to put his own petty interests above the wellbeing of others?

atm, there is no vaccine anyway, so it's kind of moot whether or not he wants it.

but also very dickish of him to announce he wouldn't use one if it existed.

djokovic sucks so hard. that's his deal.

lol i'm looking at "djokovic" going- "he doesn't play tennis, he's a fucking center." i mean, i did this.

https://consequenceofsound.net/2020/06/sammy-hagar-get-sick-die-to-kickstart-concert-industry/

I CAN'T LIVE
TIL 75555555555555

the ongoing "hey if I'm willing to die, you should be too" argument

i don't really have an opinion on this, but food discussions sometimes ignite conversational fires on ilx, so maybe this will "stoke the flames"

I love restaurant + bar culture, perhaps more so than I should, but something about this rush to get back to a wholly unrecognizable version of them, while also being wildly unsafe and exploitive, puts the lie to the whole thing being about an experience and not just consumption.

— luke oneil (@lukeoneil47) June 23, 2020

i guess i do have an opinion, actually - while the rush to re-open by restaurant chains which regularly lobby congress to allow them to fuck over their own staff solidly fits in the evil capitalism category, there are also a lot of restaurants/bars that are locally owned and are really struggling. some of them are probably contemplating closing down for good if they can't re-open to some degree soon. it doesn't excuse putting people at risk unnecessarily, but it's a little more complicated than just pure consumption (i'm assuming they used "consumption" word as a stand-in for capitalism - consumers consume. but maybe the tweet was referring to consumption as the pure need and pleasure of eating food. in which case, i guess i do not have an opinion again)

I do think there are ways to do it safely or more safely. But lots of restaurants and bars in Orlando do. Not. Care. Like they operate like PRE-COVID

they answered - consumption means money/capitalism

Few things on earth bring me greater peace than bringing a book to a bar and reading for a couple hours. That's gone. Miami hasn't opened bars unless they mix drinks for the restaurant and they ain't opening any time soon. The three times I've eaten outside at restaurants is just not the same; it's almost not worth it.

it's not good for people to be out of work, but i don't feel much pity for owners of local businesses who 'lose their livelihoods'. given how often businesses fail and given how they're supposedly started by enterprising resilient go-getters and given how wonderful it's supposed to be for them and everyone else that they are independent and self-reliant, how are they not just facing consequences of their values that they should embrace without complaining? start another restaurant, etc. and business in general is so remorseless about tearing down the world around us and replacing it with anything that looks like it will turn a profit for owners and investors, that it seems a bit rich to suddenly be asked to weep for the ones who get caught with their pants down, thinking they could ride out another decade or three skimming lazy profits off their workers and customers.

i fully sympathise with that and think it’s mainly right but running a restaurant is the opposite of “lazy profits”. it’s incredibly hard work and not well paid and even the hottest restaurants can struggle to make money.

yeah, restaurants offer a thinner profit margin and fail more than pretty much any other business and small restaurants tend to be started by individual chefs and/or their families. I reserve some pity for any restauranteur who got fucked by covid.