Zorral Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 Paul Krugman -- "How Many Americans Will Ayn Rand Kill? Liberty doesn’t mean freedom to infect other people." https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/22/opinion/coronavirus-masks.html He likens refusing to mask to dumping sewage into the municipal water supply. That's what freedom is in the USA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fragile Bird Posted October 23, 2020 Author Share Posted October 23, 2020 Worldometer is already reporting more than 44,000 cases in the US, and it’s only 3:15. This may be another record setting day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Chatywin et al. Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 5 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said: Worldometer is already reporting more than 44,000 cases in the US, and it’s only 3:15. This may be another record setting day. You should have seen the debate. Our Dear Leader said the virus is gone! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Anti-Targ Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 21 hours ago, Starkess said: Yes this whole thing is a massive strain on my mental health, and I can only imagine it must be for others as well. My sister was telling me about the precautions my nephew's basketball team is taking, and mentioned that the high school has had more deaths by suicide than covid. Maybe not covid-related, but then again maybe. I've basically been in the same 1-bedroom condo by myself since March. I see practically no one. I touch no one. It's been somewhat bearable over the summer, but as the dark and cold descends--gods, honestly there are days I question how I will handle it except for the sheer fact that I there's no other choice. I've applied 3 times so far for a travel exemption to reunite with my partner in Australia. I am willing to pay thousands of dollars for scarce plane tickets, pay for a 2 week quarantine there, do whatever the government asks, I've submitted pages and pages of proof that we are genuine partners, but I just get the same one sentence rejection. I'm in a facebook group for people in similar situations and some have applied 30+ times before receiving their exemptions (while others get it on try 1 or 2--honestly it seems to be half a lottery more than actually checking off the supposedly sufficient requirements). And that's just one particular set of people (partners where one person lives in Australia and the other abroad), and there are thousands of people in it that are suffering. These sorts of mini crises are playing out all across the world. (None of this to say, btw, that covid restrictions are unnecessary! Just that this situation is awful awful awful and has severe impacts beyond just the direct issue of catching covid.) IMO it is and it isn't. The increase mental illness is because of COVID-19, but not because of the disease or even the control measures. But rather the piss poor governance that has meant the control measures have not been as effective as they should have been. The preference of governments to saving the economy over saving lives, and the depressingly large number of people who are anti-science, anti-control measures and COVID deniers etc. It leads to feelings of hopelessness which sends some people down very dark paths. In countries where govts and people are seen as getting things right, listening to experts, putting peop0le ahead of profits, while still having an eye towards the economy and supporting it in ways that do not significantly risk public health. Mental health and suicide stats are not nose-diving. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zorral Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 @Starkess -- I am so sorry for your situation. Really sorry. It is really awful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zorral Posted October 23, 2020 Share Posted October 23, 2020 Nodak's really angry that federal guidelines are shutting down indoor visits to nursing homes. https://www.inforum.com/newsmd/coronavirus/6730467-After-feds-step-in-North-Dakota-restricts-visitation-at-nursing-homes-amid-virus-surge Quote Representatives from the state’s Vulnerable Population Protection Plan (VP3) task force relayed the news during a meeting with long-term care operators on Thursday, Oct. 22, explaining that the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) was putting its foot down on new regulations announced in September that call for significantly tighter visitation policies at skilled nursing facilities. North Dakota has nearly 80 such facilities, where medically trained staff care for residents. "CMS did not support our VP3 plan for visitation as they felt that allowing visitation right now with what is happening in North Dakota with our community rate was putting our residents at risk," said Bridget Weidner, a coordinator for the state’s visitation policy, during the call, relaying news from a meeting between CMS and state officials last week. "I know that’s not necessarily the answer we were hoping for, but it’s the answer we got loud and clear last Friday." The change comes as more than half of the state's COVID-19 deaths have occurred in nursing homes, and as cases continue to climb rapidly across the state. Still, state officials worked hard to avoid adopting the federal visitation guidelines after they were announced on Sept. 17, and Department of Human Services Director Chris Jones said on Friday that the state intends to keep negotiating with CMS even after bringing state facilities into line with the guidelines this week. "We're not giving up," he said, noting that his office is drafting up new proposals to the federal agency in hopes of restoring visitation at all North Dakota nursing homes. "We're not going to quit. I just don't have the answer yet." Had North Dakota opted to hold out longer, the state risked federal fines imposed on individual nursing homes, as well as the perennially looming possibility of losing Medicaid funding. For many other states, the new CMS visitation plan actually relaxed state-level visitation policies, but it did the opposite in North Dakota. This unique effect was partially due to comparatively lax visitation policies that the state implemented in June, according to Jones, who argued that the CMS plan is a one-size-fits-all policy that penalizes North Dakota for being ahead of the curve on visitation. "In some ways we’re kind of like victims of our own success. Because if you go to Minnesota, I mean they’ve been locked up since March," he said. "We’ve been doing this the whole time, and now they’re saying we’re going to have to go backwards." Jones said CMS expressed concern about the severity of viral spread in North Dakota, especially rural areas, and didn’t see the rationale in granting an exception at this point in the pandemic. The new CMS guidelines apply only to skilled nursing facilities, a subset of nursing homes in North Dakota regulated by the federal government. VP3 coordinator Seth Fisher said during Thursday's call that long-term care facilities operating under the state's purview should continue with the state's more open visitation policies until further notice. According to the new CMS guidelines, a facility must cut off indoor visitation if there has been a new positive COVID-19 test within the facility within 14 days, or if the facility is conducting outbreak testing. The guidelines also require tiered reductions to visitation depending on the prevalence of the virus in the surrounding county, a metric that will leave many North Dakota facilities ineligible for indoor visitation because of the severity of the viral outbreak in much of the state. Outdoor visitation is still allowed under all scenarios, but the onset of cold weather in North Dakota has already made those visits impractical, a point that state officials had hoped would sway federal regulators to grant an exception. “We clearly made our point to CMS, and they clearly made a point back that they didn’t necessarily agree 100% with where our plan was going,” Weidner said of Friday’s meeting with federal regulators. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Castellan Posted October 24, 2020 Share Posted October 24, 2020 I would like to see polling about whether people believe that COVID exists in conjunction with whether people believe in alien abduction, reptilians, Qanon ideas, God decides who dies from diseases, gun control, and whether they are anti-vaccination. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fragile Bird Posted October 24, 2020 Author Share Posted October 24, 2020 As predicted, a new record: 80,005 per Johns Hopkins, 81,210 per Worldometer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A True Kaniggit Posted October 24, 2020 Share Posted October 24, 2020 2 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said: As predicted, a new record: 80,005 per Johns Hopkins, 81,210 per Worldometer. And it's still trending upwards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigFatCoward Posted October 24, 2020 Share Posted October 24, 2020 2 hours ago, Fragile Bird said: As predicted, a new record: 80,005 per Johns Hopkins, 81,210 per Worldometer. 36000 on 1/6 of the population, read em and weep. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljkeane Posted October 24, 2020 Share Posted October 24, 2020 I don't know if it's just because more people are being tested or it's just worse where I live but it does feel like it's a lot more widespread this time than when we went into lockdown. I knew of one person who tested positive last time and I know a bunch of people this time. On the plus side pretty much everyone seems to have had a mild case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heartofice Posted October 24, 2020 Share Posted October 24, 2020 51 minutes ago, ljkeane said: I don't know if it's just because more people are being tested or it's just worse where I live but it does feel like it's a lot more widespread this time than when we went into lockdown. I knew of one person who tested positive last time and I know a bunch of people this time. On the plus side pretty much everyone seems to have had a mild case. Do you know what symptoms they had, and whether having symptoms was why they had a test? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljkeane Posted October 24, 2020 Share Posted October 24, 2020 56 minutes ago, Heartofice said: Do you know what symptoms they had, and whether having symptoms was why they had a test? One guy got tested because he lost his sense of taste and smell, although since his wife had already tested positive it was probably pretty obvious he was going to test positive at that point. Other than that I don't really know the specific symptoms that lead to people getting themselves tested. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fragile Bird Posted October 24, 2020 Author Share Posted October 24, 2020 2 hours ago, ljkeane said: I don't know if it's just because more people are being tested or it's just worse where I live but it does feel like it's a lot more widespread this time than when we went into lockdown. I knew of one person who tested positive last time and I know a bunch of people this time. On the plus side pretty much everyone seems to have had a mild case. In round one the virus was spreading itself, many areas had no virus. Now the virus has oozed out like slime, filling all the pockets that missed it the first time. In the US so many western states sneered at the east coast and just ignored the CDC instructions to open up slowly. First it hit the south, then the Midwest, and now all of the central US has it, for example. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zorral Posted October 24, 2020 Share Posted October 24, 2020 But it can't happen here, o no! So keep the gyms, bars, churches, synagogues, mosques and parties wide open! Let 'er rip! https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/belgium-covid-hospitals-schools/2020/10/23/85358010-14a9-11eb-a258-614acf2b906d_story.html "So many workers are sick or quarantining that critical services are faltering. As the virus's spread accelerates, the Belgian health minister said that it could soon escape authorities’ control." The WaPo has also been carrying a report the last two days concerning major appliances such as ovens, washing machines, refrigerators, breaking down -- and nobody to repair them. https://www.washingtonpost.com/road-to-recovery/2020/10/22/appliance-repair-services-pandemic/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Argonath Diver Posted October 24, 2020 Share Posted October 24, 2020 My suburban Illinois town is part of a 7 county region that llifted restrictions on bars and restaurants two weeks ago, allowing spaced indoor service and 2am closing. Well, two weeks later, what a surprise, our numbers are shooting up and Gov Pritzker is saying "I told you kids if you didn't behave you'd go right back. Now you lost your TV time." We're shut down again as of Wednesday, I assume throughout this extended spike. Our town's FB group is deleting multiple calls to outright violate the restrictions, pointing to a few nearby rural towns that have had businesses flaunt the rules, along with indifferent local police. Covid ended my bartending career, but I know a ton of people still trying to make it work who are at their wit's end. A close couple I know invested their savings into their dream to open their neighborhood lounge, which would be a huge success had it not opened in March of 2020. Now that the weather's cold, the patio isn't an option. Between that and their hardships with school - a whole 'nother issue with our town trying and failing remote learning, then hybrid, now fully in-person) - I am broken-hearted for them, but at the same time, the staff wore masks but zero customers did and they certainly never cared about people circulating or grouping. There basically wasn't a more unsafe place in town, period. That's irrelevant to whole swaths of the population. One of the most likable bar regulars in town is fiercely anti-mask for the usual "Muh Freedums" logic. He lost his best friend recently to Covid, and put a FB picture up of the guy on his Harley with the caption, "No masks in Heaven, Ride On Brother". What the hell? There are so, so many people I know who are "Over it" or simply don't consider the risk of death worth the change of lifestyle. Even if this election goes like a dream, and the Dems win the Senate and the White House, I have no earthly idea how our leaders are going to change the minds of an ever increasing amount of people saying things like "Enough is enough", "It's never going away" and the like. They're going to hate Biden and AOC and libs like me forever because Wing Night meant that much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Castellan Posted October 24, 2020 Share Posted October 24, 2020 I have read some quite frightening articles about Long Covid recently. Also the extent of heart damage. https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/a-living-hell-the-serious-and-persistent-symptoms-of-long-covid-20201021-p5678w.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_feed https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2020-10-23/doctors-with-long-covid-warn-long-term-effects-can-be-serious/12785934 https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6204259496001 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zorral Posted October 24, 2020 Share Posted October 24, 2020 1 hour ago, Argonath Diver said: He lost his best friend recently to Covid, and put a FB picture up of the guy on his Harley with the caption, "No masks in Heaven, Ride On Brother". What the hell? There are so, so many people I know who are "Over it" or simply don't consider the risk of death worth the change of lifestyle. Even if this election goes like a dream, and the Dems win the Senate and the White House, I have no earthly idea how our leaders are going to change the minds of an ever increasing amount of people saying things like "Enough is enough", "It's never going away" and the like. They're going to hate Biden and AOC and libs like me forever because Wing Night meant that much. I feel ya, Bro. What did They put in the water back in the days of Reagan? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 25, 2020 Share Posted October 25, 2020 If the trends here in Oklahoma continue, expect us to be a hot spot to rival ND & SD. Cases and hospitalizations hit records multiple times this week. Oklahoma City is already moving lower priority patients outside of Oklahoma County to preserve hospital beds to keep from having to cancel elective surgeries. We never really came down after the summer spike, so we're operating from a far higher plateau than we were when we shut down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DireWolfSpirit Posted October 25, 2020 Share Posted October 25, 2020 So I've lost track of whether our YMCA has been able to remain open. When they reopened I went swimming a few times but have really avoided going altogether because I haven't fealt comfortable with risking the possible exposure to the virus. I kept telling myself I'd get back to my routine as soon as things got more normal again. Currently local conditions are even worse than they were going into the initial shutdown, the infectious disease experts are saying it's going to continue to get worse in coming months. Long story short, I have no idea when I'll feel safe swimming again. I think I'm going to invest in putting a lap pool and sauna at the house and just moving on from the Y for good. This isn't a light decision for me as I've been going to health clubs steadily since I was 16 yrs old. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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