How are you dealing with life now with the Covid-19 virus situation? (2 Viewers)

[Walter Kittel]

I won't bother posting what I really think, because it would violate HTF policies with extreme prejudice.

It is going to get a lot worse before it gets any better. Schools are going to be spreading the virus like wildfire, or whatever spreads even faster than wildfire.

Regarding the point of not relying upon government. Ensuring public safety is one of the primary responsibilities of government, and clearly the federal government has failed miserably by any standard you can apply; unless that standard is to do as much harm as is possible through inaction while tens of thousands of Americans are dying and tens if not hundreds of thousands more will die this fall/winter.

I should probably stay out of this thread, because it makes me incredibly angry that this is happening. I can only hope that there is some karmic balance at the end of all of this; but I am sure not counting upon it.

- Walter.

 

[John Dirk]

We shouldn’t be asking “what do we need to do to pretend school is safe?” We should be saying, “School isn’t safe, going to the office isn’t safe, going out recreationally isn’t safe, so what can we do to support our population while it idles at home? What can we do to make staying at home sustainable indefinitely?” That was the question we still haven’t meaningfully addressed from the start.

Others have touched on this so I won't dwell, other than to reiterate the point that, (by definition) the terms "indefinitely" and "sustainable" are mutually exclusive in this context. I do not disagree with what you have said on a theoretical level but I do think it would mean fundamentally reshaping how we exist as societies, a task we're probably not capable of in our lifetimes.

I suspect most of us here do not have children in the K-12 stage but, for the millions who do and have to report to work to retain their jobs, what are their real-world alternatives? I don't have children and worked mostly from home even before COVID but my heart goes out to those who don't have the same flexibility. Again, I don't disagree with you on what is needed, I just don't see a practical way of getting there anytime soon and many have difficult choices to make tomorrow morning.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Regarding the point of not relying upon government. Ensuring public safety is one of the primary responsibilities of government, and clearly the federal government has failed miserably by any standard you can apply; unless that standard is to do as much harm as is possible through inaction while tens of thousands of Americans are dying and tens if not hundreds of thousands more will die this fall/winter.

Nobody has said don't rely on govt at all... though clearly, govt has (and should have) limits...

As I said before, these issues are not some one-size-fits-all, all-or-nothing propositions.

Don't keep swinging the pendulum so very far in whichever direction each time (as a result of outrage or the like)... though I understand it seems to be a very human tendency to overcompensate...

IMHO, not much gets solved well that way...

_Man_

 

[LeoA]

I'm worried living in the midst of a small rural area that just happens to also contain four universities in my village and the village 10 miles south of me.

Not looking forward to what's about to happen here, but the four universities control these two communities and aren't interested in distance learning until it's safe to go back to normality.

I just pray my family and friends make it out okay, since I think we're in for a rough few months thanks to higher education. They're great schools and I did both my undergraduate and graduate degrees at one of them, but they're putting their financial self interest ahead of the health of the local communities that host them, their employees, and their students.

 

[Keith_R]

I live in a college town in FL. The better part of the last few months has been spent confined at home as I have pre-existing conditions as does my girlfriend. However, I have made some excursions out along the coast in a fashion such to mitigate risk. No Disney trips or cruises anytime soon though.

I’m greatly concerned about the future, and I also think this will be a world-changing event akin to 9/11.

 

[Mark Booth]

The situation in schools will be similar to what happened at a youth camp in Georgia:

SARS-CoV-2 Transmission and Infection Among Attendees of an...

Limited data are available about transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), among youths. During June 17–20, an overnight camp in Georgia (camp A)...

www.cdc.gov

June 17-20: 138 trainees and 120 staff arrive, most of them remain
June 21: 363 campers arrive, along with 3 senior staff members
June 22: One teenage staff member experiences chills and is sent home the next day
June 24: Teenage staff member tests positive for COVID
June 24: Camp starts sending kids home
June 27: Camp is closed

Everyone was tested. Test results are only available for 344 of them. Of those 344, 260 tested positive for COVID.

10 days and 260 positive results.

What part of HIGHLY CONTAGIOUS do the people of Georgia not understand?

Mark

 

[Carlo_M]

What part of HIGHLY CONTAGIOUS do the people of Georgia not understand?

"But it won't happen here!"

Until it does...

And unfortunately, that's how a significant percentage of the human population learns its lessons. Not from listening to informed sources, but only by having it afflict them directly. And in the case of infectious diseases, by then it's too late.

 

[Malcolm R]

They said there were no masks or social distancing at that camp. Presumably, schools will try harder to take precautions.

But, yes, it will still be difficult to get kids to adhere to them.

 

[jcroy]

"But it won't happen here!"

Until it does...

And unfortunately, that's how a significant percentage of the human population learns its lessons. Not from listening to informed sources, but only by having it afflict them directly. And in the case of infectious diseases, by then it's too late.

Unfortunate, though not surprising at all.


(Without getting into politics).

Darwin is rolling in his grave.

 

[Nelson Au]

That is a great video with the lighter fluid!

Speaking of Darwin, one of the things I’m doing during stay at home is watch some YouTube videos I’d enjoyed prior to Covid while I do my workouts on my bicycle mounted on a trainer.

I watch a variety of topics from cooking to model making and design. Some of the videos are about cars and car culture. One is made by a guy in Los Angeles who owns a car storage facility for the people with high end cars and needs a place to store them. He offers conceirge services but his videos are not about that. My impression is he’s made a lot of connections and friends that gave him access to a lot of cool cars from home built muscle cars to more expensive professional builds to exotics, and his videos go over these car and shows a drive around the area doing drive bys and burn outs. One video was of a recent car meet in Los Angeles and I was so surprised to see the turn out of 1000 cars at a large parking lot and the people mostly without masks. And not distancing. The guy doing the videos made a comment that he’s not worried about the “so called virus” and will trust his immune system. Wow! This guy is a boomer, so he’s more of a vulnerable age.

There’s another car video I watch by a guy in England and he’s not so cavalier on camera, but he’s surprisingly still making videos and visiting others sometimes riding in the car with him. This guy is in his thirties and I suspect he’s more in the “he thinks he’s not vulnerable“ mindset. In ten years he’s built the channel to a point he earns enough to buy the super cars he’s been dreaming of and doing videos of.

I think these guys need to make the videos to generate the eyeballs they need to grow their channels and make their earnings.

I also watch Jay Leno‘s Garage and he’s been smart and acknowledges the virus and shoots alone. Or takes the precautions, I haven’t seen all his recent videos but his guest I’ve seen so far are distant and or via zoom.

Wearing masks is so difficult to accept for a lot of people. I saw a report that the reasons parallel arguments people made years ago about wearing seatbelts, and I imagine helmets too. They won’t have their freedoms taken from them.

 

[Jeffrey D]

Forgive me if this has already been discussed on this thread- I have purposely been staying away from this thread due to it’s too depressing for me.

The Sturgis rally- it started yesterday, and projections I read are, even though the attendance will be down this year, the expectation is 200,000+ people will still be there, along with a bunch of musical acts performing. I’m not one to preach to anyone what they should or shouldn’t do, but, IMO,
this rally this year isn’t a great idea- too high a risk of people carrying the virus back home, and causing more spikes.

 

[Mark Booth]

I think the odds are HIGH (like, pretty much guaranteed) that at least one person (if not several) will die as a direct result of the rally in Sturgis. There's NO way you can pack 200,000+ people into a small area and NOT have spread of the virus.

Here in San Diego County, if you gather 100 people in a room for one hour the odds of COVID transmission within that room are 84%.

Mark

 

[LeoA]

Glad I'm rural. We're averaging approximately one new case every three days in St. Lawrence County.

Avoiding crowded places like Walmart and taking precautions like wearing my mask, I don't feel unsafe at the moment when I go into a business like I did a few days ago at Big Lots in search of some DVD deals.

It's close to life like normal in most ways at this time for me, minus things like no classic movies from Fathom Events, no motorsports to see in person like NASCAR at Watkins Glen, and other entertainment options that involve gatherings.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

It's close to life like normal in most ways at this time for me, minus things like no classic movies from Fathom Events, no motorsports to see in person like NASCAR at Watkins Glen, and other entertainment options that involve gatherings.

Hell, NASCAR isn't even going to The Glen this year, for the first time since they returned in '86. New York's requirements are too stringent, so they moved August's traditional road course race to the Daytona road course since Florida is... well, Florida.

 

[TJPC]

In Ontario all festivals and other large gatherings have been cancelled. You must wear a mask for all indoor activities (shopping and restaurants). Today we had 76 new cases out of 14,566,547 people.

 

[Mark Booth]

Mark

 

[Scott Merryfield]

The freezer section of the small refrigerator we have in our basement bar area stopped keeping food frozen, so we decided to get a freezer chest to replace it. My wife has always wanted more freezer space, and we cannot fit anything bigger than an apartment-sized fridge in the basement bar. We have plenty of space elsewhere in the basement for a freezer chest, though. However, due to the panic food buying that's been going on, there has also been a run on freezer chests -- not one store has any in stock. This seems to be a nation-wide issue. Who knew?

A couple of days ago my wife put our name on a waiting list at Home Depot, which did not require us to pay for anything in advance (ABC Warehouse wanted payment up front just to be on a list). Supposedly the store was expecting some freezers in a couple of weeks. However, yesterday while she was out, my wife received a call that our local Home Depot had received two 7.0 cubic foot Magic Chef freezer chests. We got to the store pretty quickly, and one of the two were still unsold, so we grabbed it. Reading reviews on the Home Depot site, it seems like this is pretty normal right now -- a store will get a small number of units in, and they are gone almost immediately. We were very fortunate to get this one.

The basement refrigerator is not keeping beverages as cold as we would like anymore, as well. We use it mainly as a beverage cooler, so we do not need to be concerned about anything spoliing (we lost some food in the freezer). We plan to replace the 20+ year old unit with a freezerless apartment sized refrigerator now that we have the separate chest. It looks like these may be difficult to find right now, too.

 

[Malcolm R]

A local Chinese buffet restaurant has reopened for inside buffet dining. Masks are required at all times except when you're sitting and eating. You must wear gloves (provided by the restaurant) while selecting food from the buffet. Sneeze guards over the buffet have been extended down to allow only a small slot for you to reach the food.

 

[Clinton McClure]

A local Chinese buffet restaurant has reopened for inside buffet dining. Masks are required at all times except when you're sitting and eating. You must wear gloves (provided by the restaurant) while selecting food from the buffet. Sneeze guards over the buffet have been extended down to allow only a small slot for you to reach the food.

I don’t eat buffets anyway, but Covid has killed off all but two here. There’s a Chinese buffet that is supposed to be open again (haven’t been in years so I don’t know) and Golden Corral.

 

[TJPC]

Our chain called “The Mandarin” has abandoned the Buffett style for the time being. Instead, everything is served in small inexpensive portions (Is this “Dim Sum” style?). At the end you are charged by the plate.