How are you dealing with life now with the Covid-19 virus situation? (3 Viewers)

[Robert Crawford]

As disconcerting as it is to watch the Dodgers and Giants play in front of cardboard cutouts of fans...I have come to realize that any pro sports is better than no pro sports.

This is a small but important reminder of a more normal time for me, as a baseball fan.

That's my take too!

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

My wife and I are thinking about getting cutouts. Would be fun to see yourself out there and you get a tax deduction.

My wife seems to like the idea as well... though we don't have a dog for a Pups section, LOL.

They should sell add-on option to stream real fan noise from a phone app or something to be mixed into the stadium fan noise while they're at it, LOL.

Alas, the Yankees aren't doing this... Maybe I'll just officially become a Dodgers fan instead, LOL. Can't see myself buying a cutout w/ the Mets...

_Man_

 

[Francois Caron]

As disconcerting as it is to watch the Dodgers and Giants play in front of cardboard cutouts of fans...I have come to realize that any pro sports is better than no pro sports.

I saw the simulated crowds demo on Fox Sports. It looked horrible!

It was even worse than the glowing puck!

 

[The Obsolete Man]

So I was out today. Groceries. It's summertime. It's hot. Attractive ladies are wearing what attractive ladies wear in the summertime... short skirts, short shirts, short everything.

And masks.

And I realized... we're going to be creating a generation of mask fetishists. Guess it can't be avoided.

Thoughts like this are why I tried to stay away from people before the pandemic.

 

[Johnny Angell]

So I was out today. Groceries. It's summertime. It's hot. Attractive ladies are wearing what attractive ladies wear in the summertime... short skirts, short shirts, short everything.

And masks.

And I realized... we're going to be creating a generation of mask fetishists. Guess it can't be avoided.

Thoughts like this are why I tried to stay away from people before the pandemic.

Excuse me but I’m about to go ful sexist in my comments. The tech who did my brain mri was young, slim figured, and had a beautiful face. What I could see of it of course. They probably found my brain a little more active than usual.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

These days I feel like I'm just dealing w/ torrential downpours and flash floods all the time. Just had another one this morning. Hit us suddenly and flooded our ground floor again (from backyard)... even though I spent all last night (waking up every hour until circa 5am) looking out for one after getting hit by another 2 days ago.

Never had it this bad before -- granted, we're only talking an inch or two of flooding. Seems like our backyard drain just isn't keeping up as well as it used to. Hadn't had any flooding in a long time before this summer, but now, we've had multiple plus a couple other times I barely managed to stave off w/ a shovel and buckets.

Had tried buying some Quick Dam flood bags or the like at the local Lowe's yesterday (to help manage the issue), but they don't have any stock at all and won't have any for 1-1/2 weeks -- gotta wonder how long they can hold off Amazon if I can get such stuff a whole week faster from Amazon than from them... sigh...

Also, been trying these foaming root killer treatments multiple times in our slow backyard drain for the last 3 weeks, but don't seem to help much. Gonna finally have a plumber come check it out for us today...

_Man_

 

[Adam Gregorich]

We just got work today that our public school district will be starting school via distance learning at the advice of county health officials. Not the news our kids wanted to hear, but for the best. I feel sorry for parents of younger children across multiple grades (we have twin teens) as I'm not sure how they will make it work. A local park has a small picnic/swim area that they had to close when nice weather finally hit due to over crowding/no social distancing. They are going to reopen while limiting capacity. There are a bunch of painted circles on the ground that I am assuming are supposed to represent where people are supposed to be for social distancing. Will be interesting to see how people react to that:

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I don’t see how schools can safely reopen at or near “back to normal” levels.

I understand that there is some limited research that suggests that maybe kids don’t pick it up as easily as adults and maybe if they do they don’t get as sick as adults do.

But we don’t live in a vacuum and kids don’t exist as separate units from their parents’ household.

This isn’t like chicken pox where maybe the kids will get it but the adults are already immune.

This combines every household with kids into a single unit where one person out of that group gets the risk factors of the entire group.

With there being a two week window between when you get and start spreading the virus and when you realize you’re sick, and with fever not being a symptom for the majority of people who get it, this means that we’re just creating superspreader events and giving ourselves a false sense of security about it.

If one kid comes to school spreading it, all of the other kids in the class are exposed. All of the teachers are exposed. All of the households associated with those kids and teachers are exposed.

If we can’t get adults to wear masks and socially distanced, how on earth do we expect to get kids to do the same? If schools are generally underfunded to begin with, how do they carry the burden of expensive new safety measures?

I’m lucky in a sense that my boys are nine months old - they weren’t going to school this year anyway. But if they were nine years old, I wouldn’t send them.

Everything we’ve done, from shutdowns to social distancing to masks, has all been for nothing if we delude ourselves into thinking that while all prolonged indoor gatherings are bad that somehow thirty kids being in poorly ventilated rooms together won’t have consequences.

 

[DaveF]

I’m feeling wrung out this week. There are multiple reasons, but underpinning it is feeling anew the reality of the pandemic.

I’m feeling increased low level anxiety from seeing Fall looming, and not knowing my situation after September.

School reopening has been in the news. It doesn’t affect me directly, but it affects friends and coworkers. July 10 everyone had to choose full time LFH or two days in school plus LFH. Then last week the districts surprised everyone by tossing the those plans and declaring 100% LFH this Fall. I don’t know the right choice. But this is a BFD.

And my employer, a large national company, announced they’ve pushed first phase return-to-office recovery from Labor Day to Jan 2021. Again, a sign of the seriousness of this pandemic in America.

It’s not all terrible. But I’m feeling it the past week.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I totally get that. I think there was a lot of wishful thinking from all avenues about things being back to normal by the fall, and I think the reality that that’s not the case can feel pretty heavy.

 

[jayembee]

I've got a dentist appointment next week. Regular checkup. I called and checked that the appointment is still on, what they require of me, and also asked how they're handling it themselves. The admin quickly explained all the precautions they're taking, and pointed me to a video the owner created when they reopened explaining the office changes in response to the pandemic. Overall, it looks good.

I'm generally being conservative -- and I'm finding I'm more conservative than many I know. At the same time, for myself i think it is prudent to think about my total health, and skipping biannual checkups isn't the right kind of conservatism I want.

We're all making decisions in an information deficit, so I might be more wrong or more right on this. But I know long term, teeth are important, and we're not in an area that's a runaway hotspot currently, so I think this is an ok choice.

I'm in the same boat as you. I have a teeth cleaning scheduled on Aug 4. A few weeks ago, the office called to ask if they could move my appointment an hour, in order to spread appointments apart. At any rate, I've been seeing this dentist for, oh, probably 30+ years now, and I trust him and the hygienists, etc. who work for him. So I'm good to go. Some other physicians appointments I've had over the past few months were done via Zoom or Zoom-adjacent app, and worked well.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

The school situation is gonna difficult no matter what. But seems like schools will need to get more creative to work around this pandemic... and unfortunately, bureaucrats are not known for their creativity and effective problem solving abilities.

Part of the problem is needs are not actually all equal or identical (enough) for one size to fit all, especially in large public school systems where socioeconomic backgrounds and whatever other factors (like learning disabilities) vary widely. Many kids might do ok enough w/ distance learning, but at least some will not... and generally, the particularly disadvantaged will be impacted the most as usual.

I suspect school systems should consider targeting such particularly disadvantaged, especially those who really need the extra in-person guidance and teaching anyway, for a different solution than some "standardized" 100% distance learning -- some might just need lots of one-on-one remote tutoring, but some might really need in-person (plus school lunches and such)...

Don't think it works to force an all-or-nothing, one-size-fits-all approach across the board me thinks.

_Man_

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Same here - seeing my dentist next month. He’s a long-time family friend I’ve known practically my entire life, and the lady that runs his office has been working with him for as long as I can remember. I trust them implicitly and feel the steps they’re taking as described are as good as one can expect with everything going on. They’re working every other day, which allows for more frequent complete office cleanings, only seeing four patients a day and cleaning the exam rooms between patients, and limiting the waiting room to one person at a time. Masks required for patients at all times except for when they’re actually working on you. Updated air filtering systems in place too.

With those measures in place, I feel comfortable going.

 

[Adam Gregorich]

I don’t see how schools can safely reopen at or near “back to normal” levels.

I understand that there is some limited research that suggests that maybe kids don’t pick it up as easily as adults and maybe if they do they don’t get as sick as adults do.

But we don’t live in a vacuum and kids don’t exist as separate units from their parents’ household.

This isn’t like chicken pox where maybe the kids will get it but the adults are already immune.

This combines every household with kids into a single unit where one person out of that group gets the risk factors of the entire group.

With there being a two week window between when you get and start spreading the virus and when you realize you’re sick, and with fever not being a symptom for the majority of people who get it, this means that we’re just creating superspreader events and giving ourselves a false sense of security about it.

If one kid comes to school spreading it, all of the other kids in the class are exposed. All of the teachers are exposed. All of the households associated with those kids and teachers are exposed.

If we can’t get adults to wear masks and socially distanced, how on earth do we expect to get kids to do the same? If schools are generally underfunded to begin with, how do they carry the burden of expensive new safety measures?

I’m lucky in a sense that my boys are nine months old - they weren’t going to school this year anyway. But if they were nine years old, I wouldn’t send them.

Everything we’ve done, from shutdowns to social distancing to masks, has all been for nothing if we delude ourselves into thinking that while all prolonged indoor gatherings are bad that somehow thirty kids being in poorly ventilated rooms together won’t have consequences.

In late June our district gave us the choice of full remote, or in school 2 days, remote three (the plan being fewer students meant social distancing, masks would be required). Thankfully every student in our district has a chromebook provided by the school. I don't know how that would work with districts that don't have computing devices for each of their students, or students who don't have internet access, let alone family work issues. A parent on a local FB group today was trying to figure out what to do. She has a 15yo and two elementary aged kids. She will need to rely on the 15yo to keep tabs on the younger ones, but isn't sure how she can do that and her own school work. Its going to be an interesting fall, especially since parents expect it to run better than it did this past spring when they had to institute it without much planning.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

My heart goes out to everyone trying to find a path forward in this impossible situation. To me it seems obvious that the rational thing to do is stay home and keep everything else on hold but I also understand the world doesn’t stop just because I think it should.

 

[DaveF]

In late June our district gave us the choice of full remote, or in school 2 days, remote three (the plan being fewer students meant social distancing, masks would be required). Thankfully every student in our district has a chromebook provided by the school. I don't know how that would work with districts that don't have computing devices for each of their students, or students who don't have internet access, let alone family work issues. A parent on a local FB group today was trying to figure out what to do. She has a 15yo and two elementary aged kids. She will need to rely on the 15yo to keep tabs on the younger ones, but isn't sure how she can do that and her own school work. Its going to be an interesting fall, especially since parents expect it to run better than it did this past spring when they had to institute it without much planning.

That’s the choice given by two large counties here in NOVA. Parents agonized for two weeks and made their choice two weeks ago. Last week the school districts rescinded the plan and unilaterally declared full time LFH this fall.

I have no anger about this. But, wow, how stressful must it be for parents and kids!

 

[John Dirk]

Everything we’ve done, from shutdowns to social distancing to masks, has all been for nothing if we delude ourselves into thinking that while all prolonged indoor gatherings are bad that somehow thirty kids being in poorly ventilated rooms together won’t have consequences.

I agree and I think this also applies to sports, even without fans or limited fans. The NFL is already starting to show they haven't properly assessed the situation and players [namely J J Watt] have spoken out about it. As much as I love football I don't see how a season can be safely played at this point as, even in a "bubble" contact tracing is virtually impossible.

It’s not all terrible. But I’m feeling it the past week.

Same here. I work for a large healthcare provider and our testing tents are at record capacity now, which means yours truly must increase network capacity to accommodate the administrative workload. I'm logging 12 - 14 hour days again.

No one wants to see things return to normal more than me but to do so prematurely and with no real discernible solution or containment plan is dangerous to the extreme.

 

[TravisR]

I don’t see how schools can safely reopen at or near “back to normal” levels.

I understand that there is some limited research that suggests that maybe kids don’t pick it up as easily as adults and maybe if they do they don’t get as sick as adults do.

I'm quite obviously not a scientist but I want to know how or why kids would be so much less susceptible to coronavirus than an adult. I could be totally wrong but it seems to me that kids are all gross with runny noses so why are they susceptible to the common cold but not coronavirus? I think the only reason that kids haven't been sick on the same level that adults have been is because they've been home for 4 months and there might be a real horror show coming if they're put into small rooms with lots of people and no strict adherence to social distancing.

 

[Adam Gregorich]

I'm quite obviously not a scientist but I want to know how or why kids would be so much less susceptible to coronavirus than an adult. I could be totally wrong but it seems to me that kids are all gross with runny noses so why are they susceptible to the common cold but not coronavirus? I think the only reason that kids haven't been sick on the same level that adults have been is because they've been home for 4 months and there might be a real horror show coming if they're put into small rooms with lots of people and no strict adherence to social distancing.

I'm not a scientist either, but I play one on Facebook (kidding!). My guess would be maybe kids immune systems are more adaptable and better designed to handle new things? More importantly they don't have the risk factors that adults and the elderly have. I have just seen the claims that they aren't as susceptible, never any details as to why. Most of the back to school concerns I saw were actually about the teachers and staff.

 

[jcroy]

For kids who have been affected, the symptoms appear to resemble Kawasaki disease.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/05/28/children-with-perplexing-syndrome-linked-covid-19-may-be-experiencing-deadly-cytokine-storm/

This might be releated to a "cytokine storm", which affects folks who have immune system issues.

Cytokine storm - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org