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How are you dealing with life now with the Covid-19 virus situation? (1 Viewer)

TonyD

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This week I’m dealing by watching something on the free Epix trial.

War of the Worlds.

This one is a little different then previous versions.
Pretty good three eps in.
 

TonyD

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"But as you can see, it's a beautiful day, the beaches are opened and people are having a wonderful time. Amity, as you know, means friendship."

There is a twitter account that is the Mayor of Amity.
It’s a parody obviously but it’s mostly that kind of stuff.
Like in the movie. The beaches are fine, it’s okay to go in the water....
 

ManW_TheUncool

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If you guys really feel nothing will change, then we’re all doomed.

IMO, it's not that nothing will change at all, but it will probably not be (or feel) as drastic as you seem to think.

That's why I tried to put it into perspective w/ everything else in life.

Of course, this is assuming we come up w/ a vaccine and/or various effective enough treatments for this before too long. You might be right if we don't come up w/ anything effective enough in the next year or three. But I certainly wouldn't want to assume that...

IF this kind of social distancing (to be followed fairly strictly) becomes necessary indefinitely in order to save roughly 1% of the population, gasp, I'm actually not so sure that's worth it. Short term is one thing, but permanently? I'm not at all suggesting I'd wanna willy-nilly sacrifice anyone else, but heck, people around the world are dying all the time (just that we've become so used to the comforts and reassurances of the modern 1st world and so aren't usually that concerned)... Heck, I'd probably volunteer my own life to be part of that 1%, especially if I'm another 10-20 years older -- I just turned 50 last year -- and maybe many others would too, if they've lived "long enough" and have younger loved ones' futures to consider... Heck, how do you think many of our various predecessors helped build the life we inherited and continue to build now? Most of them made real sacrifices too.

Sure, maybe you prefer the sacrifice of making and keeping drastic changes like social distancing on permanent basis -- and that would indeed be very drastic. But not everyone feels the same though... otherwise, we wouldn't have so many cars of the road amongst other risks for instance...

Some might wanna call all that stupid, but I think making such (often difficult) choices is just part of being the most intelligent, sentient beings on earth (even though some do seem significantly smarter or wiser than others)... Nobody real or rational ever promised otherwise me thinks...

Hmmm... maybe I should go watch the Ballad of Narayama now...

https://www.criterion.com/films/28240-the-ballad-of-narayama

_Man_
 

Tino

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Fine you think people will change, I don't. I have made my educated guess, moving on.
Don’t take this the wrong way but what do you mean by “ educated guess”?

Anecdotal evidence is interesting but ultimately useless imo.
 

Carlo_M

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My postulations:
  1. Not everyone will change (I know, brilliant, right)
  2. The degree of change will vary based on factors such as: political affiliation, scientific knowledge and understanding, etc.
  3. The degree of change will also vary based on final mortality totals. The worse this gets, the more people will be likely to change behaviors. The blessing and curse is, if we manage to flatten the curve and less than 100K die, then I think change will be small and short-lived, but if 250K+ die, then more will change. And again, this will vary based on 1) and 2) above, as well as geography/how hard your city/state are hit.
Right now, I'd be happy if people just started fully covering their mouth and nose when sneezing/coughing, staying home when sick (cold/flu) vs. "toughing it out"...yeah we know you're tough but thanks for infecting everyone else in the office. Oh and heck, while we're dreaming big, even wearing masks while they are sick if they do have to go outside.
 

ManW_TheUncool

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Right now, as laymen, we can't have an educated guess as too much remains unknown.

Basically, we're all just beating a dead horse at this point... Better to go watch and enjoy some of our fabulous, "movie nut" (as the "world" thinks) collections... :P:D:cool:

Cheers!

_Man_
 

Tony Bensley

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Regarding taking precautions of safe social distancing, staying at home whenever possible, and wearing a mask whenever out in order to greatly reduce the risk of spreading the virus, I've come to see that a vast majority of the population adopting these measures is absolute key to nipping the spread of COVID-19 in the bud. These periodic "let's throw caution to the wind" outings, in which neither social distancing or protection are adhered to only make an already dire situation worse, in my semi-educated opinion.

Believe me, I do understand the frustration. Every fiber of my being just wants to fucking bust out of my self isolation and enjoy the sunny spring days walking through our local park, but I know this wouldn't be in mine or in anyone else's best interests, at the present. Hell, for the first time in decades, this diabetic isn't even getting my usual 3 month blood work done that measures my average blood glucose readings.

Hopefully, it'll be possible to return to something somewhat resembling normal routine in the coming months, but I fear we may still be very much in the early days of this global pandemic.

STAY SAFE EVERYONE and CHEERS! :)
 

DaveF

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I've been trying to understand how I feel about my situation. In part because it seems different from a lot of people. So, here it is:

Locked in a cage in my mind, covered with heavy blankets, is a howler monkey raving, largely inaudibly, from the existential dread of how this could break the world, and destroy my life.

But moment to moment, this is great. I've been on a staycation for the past 10 days. This is exactly what I enjoy doing. I'm online, with time to spend at HTF. I'm watching TV I haven't had time for. I've gotten in a movie in my theater. I get to do some cooking. I'm getting exercise, out jogging and using the local park's exercise equipment. I'm spending some good time with my wife, playing board games, taking walks every couple days. There's no social pressure to plan social events or carve up the weekend with comings and goings. Right now, it's pretty refreshing.

I know that's right now. In a week or two, this will be more suffocating. I enjoy solitary time, but I'm not a total introvert. I want to see my friends. And the issues that agitate that howler monkey will only increase.

But right now, in the moment, I'm chill and enjoying unplanned time at home.
 

TJPC

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Things do change. Our paper had a huge article about the cholera outbreak that happened in 1860 here. It motivated the city to install one of the first water systems and pumping stations. Hamilton became known as the “Clean Water City” From then on. Cholera disappeared.
 

ManW_TheUncool

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One thing I can imagine definitely changing is the amount of telecommuting and other such reliance on virtual/remoting tech as a result of this... A lot were already gradually heading in that direction of course, but this will probably "help" drive us more quickly toward that across all areas I suspect... and that will yield a natural degree/kind of social distancing...

And that may also mean densely populated cities like NYC will not be quite the same anymore... well, at least maybe not continue on its path of crazy escalating real estate demand and pricing anyway...

_Man_
 

Malcolm R

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Hell, we can't even get some people to use vaccines that are available today for diseases that were mostly eradicated, like measles. We just had a significant measles outbreak last year. Health emergencies were declared in Washington state and NYC. From the CDC: "From 1 January, to 31 December 2019, 1,282 individual cases of measles were confirmed in 31 states. This is the greatest number of cases reported in the U.S. since 1992. Of the 1,282 cases, 128 of the people who got measles were hospitalized, and 61 reported having complications, including pneumonia and encephalitis." Completely and totally avoidable.

If people are not willing to change their behavior at the height of a pandemic, they're most likely not going to change it once things have eased. And many of those who have made cursory changes will revert back to normal behavior, as well. You can already see that in the anecdotal evidence in this thread and from various news sources about people flocking back to beaches that are re-opened, and the crowds in China at places that have re-opened, such as tourist attractions and markets. As I've said before, people have short memories.
 

ManW_TheUncool

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But moment to moment, this is great. I've been on a staycation for the past 10 days. This is exactly what I enjoy doing. I'm online, with time to spend at HTF. I'm watching TV I haven't had time for. I've gotten in a movie in my theater. I get to do some cooking. I'm getting exercise, out jogging and using the local park's exercise equipment. I'm spending some good time with my wife, playing board games, taking walks every couple days. There's no social pressure to plan social events or carve up the weekend with comings and goings. Right now, it's pretty refreshing.

I know that's right now. In a week or two, this will be more suffocating. I enjoy solitary time, but I'm not a total introvert. I want to see my friends. And the issues that agitate that howler monkey will only increase.

But right now, in the moment, I'm chill and enjoying unplanned time at home.

Welcome to the club. I (and I'm sure plenty of others on HTF) know what you mean... I've actually sorta been doing this staycation thing for ~3 years now... maybe longer (since I started working mostly from home a few years before that) if you ask my family, haha...:P Yeah, I went out now and then, but I was plenty comfy w/ just staying home and rarely going out... other than for essential things (not including my previous job) and the occasional (actual) vacation trip elsewhere...

And I'm not exactly an introvert either... but just seem to be pretty good at adapting and getting comfy and settling in... as long as I still get to explore whatever curiosities I suppose...

Cheers!

_Man_
 

TJPC

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Our lives as “old retired people” have not really changed for the most part. What has really changed is the total lack of anything to look forward to. Some time at home doing chores etc. used to be balanced by the following:
1) shopping and eating out
2) trips to the casino (gambling for her, buffet for me)
3) trips to the US — picking up Amazon disc purchases, shopping, casino
4) going out to movies
5) theatre (:( — Hamilton tickets)

All these things are frivolous, but we did enjoy them. Who can gripe with the difficulties others have. I can only look back and feel wistful.
 

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