This makes me laugh a little. It's like saying, "I'm anti-abortion. I don't like abortions, but I understand why they have to be done and you won't catch me protesting them." Nobody is pro-lockdown, just like nobody is pro-abortion. They are things that are done out of necessity. If you understand and accept the necessity of things you don't like, then I don't think you're really against them - I think you're just a regular, sensible person who wants everyone to stop being assholes. We're both in the, "I don't like lockdowns, but support the ability to implement emergency measures to stop stupid people from killing others"-camp. It's just too bad that camp has to exist.
In the beginning I took a much more pro-freedom position, cause that's what freedom boils down to, the freedom to make one's own smart or stupid decisions. Boy, was I wrong. The smart didn't rise within everyone like it should have, in fact, the stupid seems to be beating the smart down like a little bitch.
Nothing about freedom or liberty in the current discussion seems to be about those things. It seems to be misnomers for "avoiding responsibility", or "that doesn't apply to me". Not a lot of critical thinking or consistently applied logic on the "my rights" crowd, also known as, "apparently we need laws so you wear pants to Applebee's". Working Covid now from inside the beast, and we are looking at the worst set of circumstances since this began.
At this point, what else can realistically be done? Even come January 20th when there's a new president, you're not going to get that toothpaste back into the tube when it comes to even the most basic requests of wearing a fucking mask. So again, what can be done until we get a vaccine(s) into actual widespread distribution? I have no faith up to this point that all of a sudden something is going to change and make people realize that even just the bare minimum of self sacrifice would put them back on a path to relative normalcy as opposed to spit-screaming about 'muh freedumbs!'.
As much as I think some people will continue to be terrible, I am also hopeful that having consistent, fact-based messaging from the federal level will be helpful. I know here in Michigan Big Gretch has come up against a lot of push back and some of it has literally been from (and fueled by) the Trump administration. Things aren't going terribly well here, but it's not for her lack of trying. Maybe I'm being naive, but at the very least I think it will be a huge relief to have someone saying "Hey, take this seriously!" as opposed to... everything that is and isn't happening now.
I'm still pretty proud of how well our county is doing throughout this pandemic. Went to the grocery store yesterday during a pretty busy time and only saw one person without a mask, and he was obviously considerate in keeping his distance from others. We just went beyond 1,000 cases a couple day ago. If you don't consider a prison outbreak as part of an accurate representation of Covid spread within a rural community, I tend to deduct those numbers because the prison environment is not typical living conditions for the surrounding community, our number is approximately 20% lower. We're well below the cases per 100k ratio of most places. We're a tourist destination. Though we canceled all of the big festivals, fireworks displays and weekly concerts, it didn't stop people from coming to the lake for the day or weekend. Once the campgrounds opened back up, they were filled to capacity regularly. An hour and a half south, they've had 4,000 new cases in the last two weeks. Keep it up neighbors, keep it up.
There were good reasons for those restrictions, though. Maybe the messaging wasn't great, but bulk travel from cities to rural areas is a great way for the virus to spread to communities that are less prepared/have fewer medical resources. When people go to their vacation homes, they usually need to stock up, which means more people competing for space and products in smaller numbers of stores. The problem isn't one guy going to his vacation home in a small town that nobody has heard of. The problem is a thousand people all going to their cabins in a popular mountain town, or everyone deciding to visit their house on Cape Cod right now. As with many things, the issue isn't one person doing one thing alone. You may be trying to camp in some dispersed camping site that nobody goes to ever, or boat on a small mountain lake with two other guys, but that's not where most people are going. It's a serious problem when a thousand people descend on some popular camping region, bringing in a virus that didn't exist there previously, increasing the population density, emptying store shelves... There's no graceful way to say, "okay you can camp, but stop being a fucking idiot about the places you choose." Because that leaves it up to the individuals, who we've already established make shitty choices when left to their own devices.
I agree with you that the politicization contributed wildly to this nightmare. The lack of understanding was another contributing factor. However, since when is your doctor supposed to educate you on how/why something works for you to decide? "If you don't want to die of x, stop y and take z". Thats kind of it. Imagine the fucking lunacy we are seeing now: "is this anti cancer drug part of the fake news tumor hoax?" Part of the issue is the scientists need evidence, and early on that was hard to come by for something new, so they guessed and it was wrong. Did people suffer because of an abundance of caution? Yes. Did that suffering negate thousands of corpses? Hardly. I think under some circumstances, like war, famine, disaster, and pandemic, some elements of the social contract get tightened. That will rarely make perfect sense, and the absurdities in hindsight don't really do much to help. Half the time, those decisions were knee-jerk as fuck, and that is a testament to shitty leadership as much as anything.
Fun math: We have 6m active cases. There's a Chinese study that suggests the 80/20 rule on asymptomatic/mildly symptomatic and severe or critical patients and a little over 1% fatalities. So, based on the active cases right now, we will see an additional 72,000 people die in the next month and a half or so. It'll also see about 250k people in critical care, and just shy of 900k need serious medical care. About 4.8m are asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic, and all 6m will be contagious for roughly 10 days from infection. It took us from January to September to hit 8m cases. The next 8m will be here by the end of January, maybe December. Cdc estimates a 4.4 trillion dollar impact from the existing death tolls, so a rough average of -$16m per casualty. So all of the nightmare, half of the time and the economic costs grow for each person we lose. Ima leave here with some strong Tourettes, yall....like real strong.
Same math, daily basis: 116,000 cases today. Contagious for up to 20 days from the onset of symptoms, so pretty close to 1 month. 92,800 have no or mild symptoms. 16280 have severe symptoms. 5800 have critical symptoms 1392 will die. Now, how many of our 6600 hospitals have capacity for the 5800 critical patients? How many morgues have space for 1400 new bodies? How many of those 16280 will need to be hospitalized and at what point in their infection? Short answer is we are running low on beds, staff and stuff....and we can't make more without getting rid of some standards we really want to keep in place.... Every. God. Damned. Day.
Reading the article it seems like the organizers did everything that they were expected to do. Now 41 out of 250 have tested positive for COVID. Stay the fuck home.
Except apply a modicum of common sense. "We need you to socially distance, what's your event for?" "It's for people who swap bodily fluids with people who are explicitly not their spouse."
"But... but... they had on the coloured wrist bands that showed positive/negative... I don't understand..."
I did some internet digging and the "positive" armbands were for people who had antibodies to COVID and had finished quarantine. Apparently this article is based on another article. But I haven't found the original. Edit: found a source, scroll down to Wristbands https://www.naughty-events.com/naughty-news/2020/11/2/being-naughty-in-a-covid-world
My brother and sister-in-law have Covid. They're as careful as any essential workers can be, masks and distancing. They both work at the same company, I'd bet that's where they picked it up. His three teenage kids live with them, along with the oldest's wife and 3 month old baby. They say sister-in-law is not far from hospitalization level symptoms, brother is just sick as fuck, but breathing without too much trouble. Shame they just downsized their house, their old place was massive, basically two huge houses, one above ground main level and fully finished basement with kitchen and everything. That would have been the perfect home for separation due to Covid.
Bob Hannaford simultaneously looks like someone who would attend a swingers convention and someone who would call the cops on his neighbor for having 5 people over for Thanksgiving dinner.
Our son's girlfriend's Dad tested positive this week, so she was going to get tested last night. Son hasn't been to their house in about two weeks, but they work together on the weekends so have had some contact. I'm taking him to be tested today, and advised him there's a good chance one or both of them will be positive. This could get interesting, we'll see. Fortunately we haven't had any contact with anyone since before he worked last. I still am off work, since Oct 23, and no idea when we'll be going back. The way things look now it won't be til after the first of the year. The district is trying to find ways to test and operate under Cuomo's "orange zone" restrictions, but more teachers and staff are positive or having to quarantine daily. So the community spread is here and very real. The targeted zone stuff strikes even me as ridiculous because it shuts down businesses within so people just go a mile up the street to another one where there isn't the restrictions. And it doesn't appear to be making a difference anyway.
I find it odd I guess HIPPA doesn’t allow us to know who tested positive when the work emails get blasted out. So it’s left to gossip and process of elimination to figure out if it was someone who was in close contact with you. My supervisor’s parents tested positive and she turned around on her way to work that morning and got tested and was set up to work from home. Then they just let her come back in while waiting for her results I guess because she didn’t have symptoms but few weeks ago they wouldn’t allow me back until my results were in though I had symptoms. Shit it shit slapped together at every level. I know it rustles jimmies around here but it bears repeating. You are the only one who can protect yourself fully in the end. Leaving up to society as a whole isn’t working at any level.