I can't tell if you're mocking me, or not, for having bought ammunition. It's subtle, but I think it's there.
Fucking Masters postponed. Motherfuckers, everybody who is involved in this bullshit panic bullshit. Go eat a bag of dicks.
I went to the grocery store after work this morning to pick up a few things. There were a LOT more people, and it was an interesting experiment looking to see what they were stocking up on. All of them with the allowed two packages of toilet paper. ( I still don't get the toilet paper thing. ) There was definitely a different air, a feeling hanging over the place. People seemed grim. I chatted with the manager a moment, and he said the hysteria started a day or so ago and they're doing their best to keep up with it. They're not even putting water and toilet paper on the shelves, they're just laying the pallets on the floor and leaving them there. We don't have to get groceries for a while, and I hope by then things change. Or they cancel schools here, I get more paid time off, and can do the shopping before the sun comes up.
What is so different about this from the H1N1 virus? I was in Iraq at the time but I don't recall this level of hysteria back then? I'm sitting on the couch, making preparations today.
I can't speak for everyone else, but shutting our shops down for an entire month would be detrimental to us, our employees, people trying to get back in their cars and anyone who happened to get in an accident in that month.
H1N1 was 2009, I think? Differences are this: - H1N1 is the Swine Flu. People are not afraid of the flu because everyone has had the flu or knows someone who has. (and it kills more people than Covid-19, but whatever) - this one has a fancy name that sounds exotic. Sing it with me now: COVID-19, oh you're scary and mean, gotta self-quarantine, cancel everything . . . - 2009 was not an election year. There is an opportunity to blame this on Trump the way Katrina was blamed on Bush - people are dumber than they were in 2009, exacerbated by social media platforms and the media looking for eyeballs and page views Also, the major difference is this: - regular flu treatment includes fluids, Tylenol, and rest; you should avoid contacting other people because they don't want to miss 3-4 days work or school - COVID-19 treatment includes fluids, Tylenol, and rest: you should avoid contacting other people because they don't want to miss 3-4 days work or school
The fact that you can have it and be contagious for up to two weeks before showing symptoms. In the meantime, you're still going around, sneezing, coughing, touching doorknobs and elevator buttons and spreading your shit around. There's no telling how your body will react to the virus because, unlike the flu, you have absolutely zero in the way of built in immunity. The symptoms look like walking pneumonia. I had that when I was in my mid-20's and it was fucking terrible for the week it took me to get over it. Now imagine having that shit for 2-6 weeks depending on how old you are. According to the WHO, the fatality rate is currently 3-4%. The seasonal flu is well below 0.1%. Germany believes up to 70% of their population will contract the virus. If we extrapolate that infection rate over the US's population, that's 210,000,000. A 3% mortality rate is 6,300,000 people. A 4% rate is 8,400,000. Even if we're optimistic, that still means a world in which you or someone you know will be personally affected by someone dying of this virus. Now imagine all of those people being in hospitals while people still have day to day medical needs. The healthcare system will fucking implode. This is a big deal. Since I don't personally want to have to deal with getting sick, not working for a month, burning through all of my PTO and then taking a bunch of unpaid time off, getting behind on my bills and leaving my wife to take care of two young kids and the house by herself while I recuperate, don't be the asshole who goes around getting people sick. Not just for my sake, but for everybody else who doesn't have the privilege of working at a job that doesn't qualify for FMLA and has paid sick time.
To echo JJ, and from inside the loop with FEMA, CDC and HHS: this is a big deal and not to be trifled with. One in 5 who contracts this needs to be hospitalized, some need to be put on a ventilator. If this spread continues, that's 20% of thousands of people who need serious care for an extended period of time. We do NOT have the capacity for this, and that likely means unnecessary death. People are going to die if this spreads and all signs are pointing to it spreading. For every thousand people who get this, 200+ need to be hospitalized, and about 30 of them die. Look at your hospital and tell me where they are putting 200 highly contagious bodies, how they are protecting their staff while they provide care, and not spread it to their families and so on. Stop trying to compare it to other shit, it doesn't matter. This is a unique situation, it doesn't matter who is in charge, or who is to blame. Right now, we all need to focus on slowing the spread of this, and that means following CDC guidance, keeping your distance and staying as clean as possible. Do your part, and quit your bitching about "Meh, panic, mah golf, mah sports ball". This isn't a panic, this is real.
Just received notice that schools are closed here for at least two weeks. I’m really looking forward to occupying a sullen teenager. Maybe I’ll teach her to knife fight.
Or we can go on with business as usual and have 2.3 billion dead. A 2-4 week breather seems light in the faces of the consequences amiright? Obviously essential services would continue. Maybe America as a whole starts to realize like Europe that take large chunks of the year off and living to pay bills and taxes shouldn’t be the total summation of our short lives. Maybe I’m an optimist.
Part of me wonders how all these companies letting their employees WFH for a month or more are going to justify forcing everyone back to the office when they see how things can presumably operate just fine with a remote workforce.
I saw an article that surmised that perhaps this WFH thing in response to the pandemic would results in a sort of work culture change with WFH being way more prevalent. There's a ton of middle managers whose main job is to manage bullshit jobs. Some places would probably continue business as usual. I imagine WFH would dissolve a lot of these bullshit jobs and the people who manage them. I think it really depends on how long this coroavirus thing goes on.
What is that, like 25% of the world population? That would cut down on a lot of resources being used, and be a step in the right direction to curb the effects of climate change.
We already have WAY too many fucking people. Like, ten times what we should. Stanhope was right, they should have packaged eugenics better.