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

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.

bar owners on the other hand i think of (rightly or wrongly) as legal drug pushers who survive on tremendous mark up so i'm less sympathetic there.

Yeah plus i have a family who opened theirs 4 months before COVID and they're freaked out about going under because their other business was wrecked by the LAST recession.

start another restaurant, etc

I don't think it's quite this easy.

A lot of restaurants need alcohol sales to survive, too. That's what so many states OK'd carry out booze.

I might have observed it before, but the worst aspect of dining out (I almost typed "dying out") has always been other people. They're the ones that degrade the so-called experience, with noise, or drunkenness, or lack of privacy or bad service or whatever. Covid has only underscored that by emphasizing other people as an actual health concern as well. I like restaurants, I like getting food to go, but I don't like it so much that I want to deal with various dangers and safety issues just for an awkward, compromised change of scenery. I like my little backyard and my little back deck, and I know I have a better liquor and beer selection than any place I might plunk down for. So give it to me to go, restaurants, and I will take it. But I don't miss your in-person service, sorry. (Not a coincidence, almost all of my favorite go-tos were always limited dine-in, anyway.)

the money (and paperwork!) involved in opening a restaurant, and the work necessary, and how often they just fail no matter what one does . . . i find it astonishing that so many people try it

bringing a book to a bar and reading for a couple hours

a bar shouldn't have that much light.

I miss dining out and going to bars and clubs. I don't support any of these places opening in an unsafe manner, but in the absence of government backing to stay afloat, I can at least understand why they would want to open.

a bar shouldn't have that much light.

― brooklyn suicide cult (Dr Morbius)

When I'm in the bar, bartenders put on their shades.

If I didn't mention it, my friend who owns a few places says his business has ironically been OK, from a bottom-line standpoint, since they are operating with skeleton crews. It really cuts down on operating costs if you have five people working in the kitchen vs. 15. The awesome hot dog stand near my house has been doing gangbusters, as far as I can tell, by offering these great family meals that feed 4-6 (with leftovers) for $45, $65, $75 dollars. They prepare in bulk, divide up the meals, then market them as weekly specials to order in advance. Suddenly the margins are better than selling just single burgers.

And per opening unsafe, so much hinges not on the establishments but on the *fucking people.* If they were safe and followed guidelines then the establishments would be safe (see: the country as a whole). But there is only so much a proprietor can do to enforce guidelines if the customers don't cooperate.

I know it isn't easy, but I'm sorry, I don't buy this

what?

You mean re: enforcement? I don't know. My friend said it's a matter of policing, but you can't be everywhere at once. And say you come across a party of five, and Matthew Fox refuses to, say, put on his mask. How many warnings? What do you do if they ignore you? Kick him out? Kick them all out? Smell everyone's hands for soap? This isn't a situation where there may be one or two scofflaws. As we've all observed, out and about there is a whole range of divergent, inconsistent behavior we've witnessed.

I think of it like the highway. There are cops catching some people speeding, and they're there to dissuade people from speeding, but by and large, everyone is still speeding.

send him back to the island!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, I mean about enforcement. In my experience checking out various businesses as they reopen, it's become very clear that some take safety and enforcement very seriously, and some just do not. With that said, there just may not be a safe way to open bars right now, in which case, they just shouldn't be open. Down here, it seems like some bars have done an exceptionally bad job and have lost their licenses as a result. This would imply that other bars are doing better, but I haven't personally been willing to find out.

Well I think Josh was partially pointing out the challenges in the difference between policing someone at the door or as they came in, versus one dude in an party of five that takes his mask off after he's already been seated.

In other words, it's easier said than done and just how much energy and time can you spend metaphorically slapping wrists when people keep trying to skirt the rules/recommendations.

Yes, there's a range of behavior and patrons, but there is also very clear range of proprietors as well, and some are more committed to safety than others. It's undoubtedly a shitty thing for states and localities to put this all in the hands of business owners the way they do here, but that's sadly where we are, and some are doing a much better job than others.

You know what would have helped? No strings-attached, no means testing monthly $$$ for every American to stay home until there's a vaccine. People out of work can survive, business owners won't feel pressure to reopen (they have bills to pay too!) Probably cheaper than what the Fed's doing! Low paid waitrons don't therefore have to become the mask police!

As far as I can tell there are lots of options for free or cheap tests right now.

xpost For sure. Especially when the margin of error is so potentially life-or-death severe. Just saying, even the best, safest places are struggling to do all they've been asked to do just to survive, but they can only do so much. Like, there are a few local restaurants I've seen that had been doing OK but closed down anyway, because it was just too much work to even break even. Or places allowed to open up again that chose not to, for the same reason. Or opened up but then closed down again.