Yeah... the only markings that seem to make sense to me are for the lines at the checkout... "form the line here, stand in this circle, so you know to stay away from the person in front of you."
Their only purpose is to reduce the number of times people are forced to walk next to each other. When two people are coming down the aisle in opposite directions, it's not possible to maintain "social distancing" no matter what choices anyone wants to make; you must cross paths. If everyone is walking in the same direction, there's at least the option of remaining an appropriate distance away. It also tends to reduce crowding, which may not apply to some stores, or the times that you tend to go to them. I've definitely been in stores where they have helped or would have helped. As with most things, they can make situations worse if only some people are paying attention (as Frebis pointed out), I'm just pointing out that they do serve a purpose. I had to go to Wal-Mart the other day. When I was pulling into the lot, I saw a group of 6 or 8 angry fat men, all wearing American flag clothing of varying kinds (this was clearly some kind of organized thing, they were head-to-toe red, white and blue), with no masks, yelling at the security guard in front of the store about their Freedom™. To the guard's credit, he was stoic and firm about the rules and didn't let them in. Of course, inside there were all manner of people without masks who claimed health conditions, or having pulled their mask down to their chin.
Well, fuck. First confirmed cases of COVID re-infection in the US. https://www.medscape.com/viewarticl...12_mscpedit_&uac=168522FV&impID=2616440&faf=1 A 25-year-old man from Nevada and a 42-year-old man in Virginia experienced second bouts of COVID-19 about 2 months after they tested positive the first time. Gene tests show both men had two slightly different strains of the virus, suggesting that they caught the infection twice. Researchers say these are the first documented cases of COVID-19 reinfection in the U.S. About two dozen other cases of COVID-19 reinfection have been reported around the globe, from Hong Kong, Belgium, the Netherlands, India, and Ecuador. A third U.S. case, in a 60-year-old in Washington, has been reported but hasn't yet been peer reviewed. Until now, immunologists haven't been too concerned about these reinfections because most second infections have been milder than the first, indicating that the immune system is doing its job and fighting off the virus when it is recognized a second time. Unlike most of those cases, however, the men in Reno, NV, and Virginia, and a 46-year-old man in Ecuador, had more severe symptoms during their second infections, potentially complicating the development and deployment of effective vaccines.
I realize stupidity plays a factor. I was asking more in rhetorical terms, like "what are the odds?" Even if you don't wear a mask and take precautions, you don't automatically contract it. Like that guy that got struck by lightning 3 times.
A little bit of Texas fuckery. The number Texas has been using to determine how open everything should be is the hospitalization rate of Covid cases. This makes sense. The idea was that if over 15% of your patients in the area hospitals were Covid positive, things would clamp back down a bit. Things go from 50% capacity to 25% (or something, I don't remember the details as I don't do anything anyway). My community/area was over 15% for a good little while and things were going to close back down some. Then with a different executive order (GA-32) the way the calculated the hospitalization rate changed and ours dropped significantly. This drop in the rate came as we saw a significant increase in numbers of cases which left me a bit puzzled. It turns out that the new way of calculating the hospitalization rate is simply to take the total number of people hospitalized with Covid and divide it by the number of total beds available. However, a lot of the "beds" available can't house Covid patients. A NICU or neo-natal bed doesn't help most Covid patients. Our area health experts are pissed at this as we are already seeing our hospitals stressed with this latest surge of cases. We are running out of beds, nurses, and various therapeutics. We have a good number of ventilators, but we don't have the staff to use them. However, there really isn't anything to be done about the surge of cases right now. Our community leaders are pleading with people and have moved us to High Alert on our status chart, but that doesn't really mean shit because they can't do anything to stop the spread. It's in the community, but the community doesn't care. A lot of people are going to have to die before we take this seriously again. Or a lot of people are going to die and no one is going to take it seriously again anyway.
Like my wife's grandmother who recently said "I think I can make my decisions for myself" when we were telling her to be more careful and now she has COVID. In her late 80s. Not listening to scientists is a risk I don't want to take.
Tourism dollars were more important than Hooper’s claim that it was no boating accident. So they kept the beaches open, Murphy’s Law serves up a testicle punch and eventually as always... life imitates art.
Pfff fuck those nerds. How is The Rock supposed to save the day if he’s listening to Clint Howard in a lab coat?
Governor Cuomo is kinda doing the same thing with numbers. He’s releasing statements like, “The state number is x% but without the hotspots it’s x%.” which results in a lower number. Last I knew that’s not how it’s done. I get it, no one wants to shut down schools and businesses but with our numbers and death rate higher then it was in March, it feels like no one is doing anything. The hospital my wife works at is adding a third “Covid unit” and staffing is a challenge. The other area hospital has an increase in hospitalizations as well. And as @Gravy said, it’s in the community and the community doesn’t seem to care. The local news published a link about Fauci warning Americans may have to rethink how we celebrate the holidays and the overwhelming consensus is as it’s been for months: “Fuck Fauci.” I try not to think on it too much, but I’m afraid we’re in for some dark times in the coming months.
The numbers are getting higher and higher in Canada, too, for the most part. Some parts of the country have stepped back and closed shit back down (Ottawa, Peel, Toronto, I'm looking at you), and we're constantly seeing "single-day records" being reported. We're at that point that the experts were warning us about MONTHS ago... 2nd wave... people are worn out, or becoming lax, because "well, I didn't get it in the first round so it's not anything for me to worry about now". I have neighbours that are talking one story ("we're really locking down!") but doing something totally different; driving around the province on spur-of-the-moment plans to go see long-lost family and friends, attending family events with multiple kids from different families who are all back in school, a fucking international pilot who doesn't self-quarantine, etc. We've already had the discussion and made the choice that we won't interact with them, even a little bit, until after this is sorted out... and we're joking about how when they get it they'll be totally shocked and not understand how that happened. So yeah... long story short, my immediate family are all hunkering down even more now than before, as we watch people in the community fuck it up for the rest of us. Even the local businesses are putting sob stories out in the press about how they need the customers to have faith in them and come back for a drink or a meal... all while other pictures show them clearly violating, or allowing their customers to violate, the minimal protocols. Nah, fuck that dude... I get that it's your livelihood and you're desperate, but that means you should win my trust by example, and you're not. At least there seems to be less and less "anti-mask" shit going on up here now... they've started to arrest the main agitators for public health violations, which I'm glad to see. So far the biggest takeaway for me from all of this, whether it's The Covid or the US elections... it's astounding to me just how fucking stupid the vast majority of the population is.
New England is holding on to its current opening phase for dear life. Maine and Vermont are doing better than almost every other US state, New Hampshire is about the same, Massachusetts and Connecticut are trending in the wrong direction (but not significantly) and Rhode Island has been and continues to be a shit-show.
How the fuck do you separate the hotspots from the rest of a metropolis with free movement between neighborhoods via rapid public transport?
Due to the ever increasing numbers Governor Cuomo just put us in an “orange and yellow zone” which means varying degrees of tighter restrictions and going to all remote learning for at least 14 days. Not surprising, since we’ve been at 5% positivity for three weeks and are in the border with PA which has even higher numbers. Of course the internet experts are foaming at the mouth, declaring it all bullshit. Which of course is how we got here in the first place. Looks like I’ll be getting a couple weeks off, just not sure if they’ll pay us or furlough us. Trying to hold off on alcohol for a couple hours longer.
Just watched Totally Under Control. It's pretty damning, but it seems we've long ago drawn the battle lines in this stupid squabble, so it will mostly serve to confirm what you already know, or you'll yell "fake news!" at the TV.
Just arrived in Utah. There's no statewide mask requirement here, just "encouragement" from the governor. I went into a gas station on the way here that had a large (at least 18" tall) sign taped to the glass on the front of the door: MASKS NOT!!! REQUIRED With little dashed lines drawn all around the "not." It amazes me how proud people are to be stupid.