Love in the Time of Coronavirus (#3)

[RhaenysBee]

The above mentioned GIF is from this article, which offers a very detailed and semi-scientific assessment of the coronavirus situation and its potential unfolding. Be aware that the author paints a rather grim picture of the what’s beyond the published number of cases. 

[Gorn]

3 hours ago, Ormond said:

And there's always some TV talk show doctor to aid and abet that:

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2020/03/10/dr_drew_pinsky_coronavirus_panic_must_stop_press_needs_to_be_held_accountable_for_hurting_people.html

My "favorite" part of the interview was when he claimed that he had the bird flu. No, you didn't, you lying sack of donkey shit. There were zero reported cases of bird flu among Americans. Either he's consciously lying, or has no idea what bird flu actually was. In either case, he should never had been given a respectable platform to spread his lies and ignorance, and I also blame the interviewer for not fact-checking him or calling him out.

[karaddin]

5 hours ago, Fez said:

 

It's the feeling of helplessness as the ground falls away. That things are spiraling out of control and the future is unknown, but dark. I probably should've had this feeling throughout the Trump administration, but at least that has been a slow-moving dumpster fire. 

This acid has been in my gut the last few years, it definitely settled in on that election night when my fears came through against the odds and hasn't left since then.

This combines with a question I've had watching Nazis come back into the open of "at what point do we abandon the idea of the 'normal' life we were expecting?" and gives an answer to that of "when reality forces our hand". Maybe this will be a blip, or maybe the world is changing on us in a very bad way.

[RhaenysBee]

An office building is being evacuated as a worker tested positive for the virus last night. The person is said to be well and in self-quarantine and their direct contacts are being investigated and examined. 

At the same time, the government website with the official local numbers has not been updated since yesterday morning. That is terribly creepy, and makes me worry that when they do update it, those numbers will have jumped quite a bit. 

[Paxter]

Yeah 9/11 is the only clear comparison point to this in my lifetime. I’m going to say this is worse though, because I still had a sense then that “everything would be alright.” I don’t really feel like that now.

[RhaenysBee]

16 infected as of today. 730 tested. About 60 in quarantine. 

meanwhile there’s a comment war on Facebook about how cinemas should interpret the government ban of indoor gatherings over 100. Some people think cinemas are right to stay open with a 99 cap on audience numbers per room, while others argue that it’s an unethical and profit-hungry shortcut around the regulation. 

About the topics discussed, I don’t have a comparison point. I wasn’t exactly conscious of the H1N1 situation ten years ago, I just remember there was a to vaccine or not to vaccine conundrum and then it all quieted down after a month or two. 9/11 was something I had no idea about until years and years later, it was way too far away and I was way too young to follow the events of the world. I just have eerily similar feelings to the ones my grandma’s Russian invasion stories invoked. Then again, that is being over dramatic, because our everyday life is still far from dire. While I fear for Italy and the world and my city and my loved ones, I am, in parallel, annoyed that the repairman to cut off my gas supply is still not calling... So I suppose we still have a sense of normal around here, even if nobody is capable of talking about anything other than the epidemic. 

[Jeor]

For me, this one's quite a bit different to 9/11. I was 15 and in high school back then, and didn't really have any feeling that 9/11 would affect me. Living in suburban Sydney as a kid who never went to any of the famous landmarks that might have been under threat, and who as a school student wasn't travelling on planes and all that - all the talk of war and terrorism in faraway places didn't really have an effect on me at all. I'm not sure what I would have felt if I were older.

COVID-19 is a bit different. It hits closer to home in terms of the immediate effect on my way of life, and has a more insidious fear factor because of its unknown presence. War would be more terrible, to be sure, but at least you have some sense of warning that it's coming and where it's likely to hit.

[Fez]

7 hours ago, DMC said:

...Wait you were happily oblivious to 9/11?  I was 16 at the time, always assumed you were older than me?  Fuck.  Anyway, I think this supersedes the proto-Tea Party killing the first bailout bill.  Today has been quite the day, and with that one you just knew they'd eventually work something out.  Still doesn't reach 9/11 levels, but I'd be hard-pressed to come up with any other more surreal day than all the shit that happened today in my adult life.  Jaxom mentioned when Dubya went into Iraq.  I guess, but I was more pissed at that than scared.

Anyway, just trying to figure out the proper language when I post the announcement about all this with my students - which I'm not required to but will do so tomorrow.  I don't want to alarm them any further than they already are, but I also don't want to sugarcoat things to make sure they take it seriously.  Tricky business.

Yeah, I was 12, almost 13, on 9/11. I knew it was a bad thing, but it felt so far removed from my life at the time that I didn't really grasp its significance. I do still remember the entire day, so I wasn't entirely oblivious. But I wasn't personally scared for the future the way I am now.

[Chad Vader]

Schools in my town in Connecticut are being closed. There’s not a lysol bottle to be had in the stores from what I’ve seen. 

[Gertrude]

So I’m an the board of essentially a summer school for kids. We’ve planned a chili supper fund-raiser for this Saturday. We voted not to cancel it (I wanted to cancel, but was in the minority) We’re serving food and a large part of our patrons will be kids and their parents/grandparents and parishioners coming from mass at the church we hold it at. I’d say 50% will be over 60. This is in Iowa, with 14 confirmed cases, most in the county south of us (30 miles). I think this is unnecessary and stupid, but we are going through with it.

Help me figure out what we can do to minimize the risk of spread. We usually have people serving up the chili, then the customers move on to a row of tables where we hand out the fixings (silverware, bread, desserts, drinks) We have condiments on the table (carrots and celery). Our usual procedure is to wear gloves, but I don’t think that is going to cut it.

My initial reaction is to have all volunteers wear masks out of an abundance of caution, but is that too much or too scary? I’d like to have hand sanitizer available in several places for us and the customers. What else?

[Maithanet]

15 minutes ago, Gertrude said:

My initial reaction is to have all volunteers wear masks out of an abundance of caution, but is that too much or too scary? I’d like to have hand sanitizer available in several places for us and the customers. What else?

How many people are going to be at this? I mean, personally I wouldn't go and would encourage others not to go.  I know that people "voted" to do it, but the situation is probably going to look pretty different (and worse) on Saturday than it did on Wednesday or whenever that vote happened. 

[Mlle. Zabzie]

• I was in NYC, downtown, on 9/11, and watched the towers fall.  The uncertainty here is similar-ish, but at least for me, that was far, far, far, worse.  I don’t do crowds well.  I can’t smell burning plastic Without mild panic.  The chaos and dislocation was way worse than this for me.  Here we know WHAT is going on.  We just don’t know how bad it is (no testing), and when it will end (don’t think it really will unless we get a vaccine).  But, we sort of know how stuff like this plays out.  This wave will be bad, then there will be a next wave probably in the fall, and then either there will be population immunity or there is a vaccine.  We can hope that this thing doesn’t mutate at the speed of the flu.  If it does then this will just be something we live with(our don’t).  
• The economy is effed.  Don’t know if it is effed 2008 style or otherwise, but buckle up.  

[DaveSumm]

With regard to China’s numbers; 80,796 total cases. All the talk is that they’ve passed the peak and are over the worse. But surely there’s (China population minus 80K) people still to be potentially get the virus, so doesn’t that mean the plateau of cases only lasts as long as the distancing measures? How long do they plan on keeping them in place?

[Luzifer's right hand]

No more church service here in Austria starting monday and panic buying has started properly now. We had our first death today too. 

[Isis]

11 hours ago, Darth Richard II said:

Also whoever in here was asking about canceling that cruise. Yeah you should cancel that cruise. o.O

Cancel all cruises forever

Anyone with serious chronic health issues is to work from home starting on Monday 16th apparently. Not sure if that's me or not (I'm asthmatic so I always get the seasonal flu vaccine) but I think I'll hang it out until the School shuts down completely. Students have one more week after this and then they go 100% online contact only until further notice.

 

[Whiskeyjack]

4 hours ago, RhaenysBee said:

The above mentioned GIF is from this article, which offers a very detailed and semi-scientific assessment of the coronavirus situation and its potential unfolding. Be aware that the author paints a rather grim picture of the what’s beyond the published number of cases. 

Came here to post this same article.

Strongly recommend people read it.

[Fez]

23 minutes ago, Mlle. Zabzie said:

• But, we sort of know how stuff like this plays out.  This wave will be bad, then there will be a next wave probably in the fall, and then either there will be population immunity or there is a vaccine.  We can hope that this thing doesn’t mutate at the speed of the flu.  If it does then this will just be something we live with(our don’t).  

This is one of the parts that gets me the most. We don't know how this will play out, at all. Everyone seems to be holding out hope that it will go away when it gets warmer, and maybe come back in the fall. But why should it go away? It's in warmer climates right now, how can we sure that this will be seasonal? It could easily just be here permanently, or at least until there's a vaccine or population immunity (assuming it doesn't mutate in a bad way). Are people really prepared for a year+ of social distancing, of the economy in standstill, of the threat of disease every time they go out? I don't think so.

To me, the only way we can confident that things will be back to normal in a few months is if we take drastic action today, and we aren't.

[Zorral]

41 minutes ago, Mlle. Zabzie said:

• I was in NYC, downtown, on 9/11, and watched the towers fall.  The uncertainty here is similar-ish, but at least for me, that was far, far, far, worse.  I don’t do crowds well.  I can’t smell burning plastic Without mild panic.  The chaos and dislocation was way worse than this for me.  Here we know WHAT is going on.  We just don’t know how bad it is (no testing), and when it will end (don’t think it really will unless we get a vaccine).  But, we sort of know how stuff like this plays out.  This wave will be bad, then there will be a next wave probably in the fall, and then either there will be population immunity or there is a vaccine.  We can hope that this thing doesn’t mutate at the speed of the flu.  If it does then this will just be something we live with(our don’t).  
• The economy is effed.  Don’t know if it is effed 2008 style or otherwise, but buckle up.  

I live in 'the zone.'  For me this is like the first weeks after the Towers fell.  Shyte, I saw the second hit, felt, sitting in my computer chair, the first..

But this is worse because it is not contained within any boundaries of time and geography, particularly as this is not a flu virus (so the professionals keep saying anyway, and are expressing anger with the constant comparison of covid-19 and the Spanish Flu),  and thus warm weather won't halt the spread.

[Fragile Bird]

5 minutes ago, Zorral said:

 

But this is worse because it is not contained within any boundaries of time and geography, particularly as this is not a flu virus (so the professionals keep saying anyway, and are expressing anger with the constant comparison of covid-19 and the Spanish Flu),  and thus warm weather won't halt the spread.

Have you read the article linked by Rhaenys B, and again in Whiskeyjack’s post at the bottom of the previous page?  The lessons of the Spanish flu are very important. It’s an outstanding article, I urge you to read it if you haven’t yet done so.

[Zorral]

8 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

 The lessons of the Spanish flu are very important. It’s an outstanding article, I urge you to read it if you haven’t yet done so.

--  and it is.

I've been reading / studying histories of plagues and epidemics all my life too, starting as a kid, going back as far as there are accounts of them available (and / or translated).  They are the foundation, almost, of apocalyptic writing -- as we see, for instance in the Book of Revelations of the King James Bible -- and certainly an enormous sub-genre of sf/f, since the beginning of it as a genre. They are even in the most 'elite' literature, such as the Decameron and Dante's Inferno. Interestingly, that Chaucer, who lived through the first waves of the Black Death, doesn't write about it.  Some literary scholars have taken this a signature of the utter trauma it was for those who survive.

Which is why I've trying to self-isolate as much as possible (which is pretty challenging where I live and work) and laying in supplies for nearly 3 weeks now.  Gosh, it's been that long?  It already seems endless!