Muh Muh Muh My Corona (virus)

I think most people are taking it mostly seriously, but there's definitely that group that is everywhere. Plus, it just hasn't been that bad here, almost the whole time. So people brush it off more as it isn't an issue here. I think if the numbers stay how they are we're going to have to see what the reactions will be, both from people and leadership. Thinking more strict safety measures are around the corner but who knows.

 

Anecdotally, I know lots of people my age or a little younger who post lots of "goddamn anti-maskers fucking it up for everyone!" memes on social media right next to their party pictures.

 

Well, at our age, it's not really a "party" anymore. Whatever you call it when a bunch of 30-somethings hang out.

 

I hear you. I play by the rules. Figure it's the least I can do. I've done everything possible to abide by science -- not going anywhere except where required, and then, of course, wearing a mask. I used to live on airplanes, and actually enjoyed the process of getting to the airport, arriving to the gate early, maybe finding an airport bar and having a Bloody Mary to calm my pre-flight jitters, and then boarding and possibly having a nice conversation with fellow travelers before arriving at a destination where everything was sort of new.

Everything about my life now is different. I'm helping to take care of my 102yo grandma, for one. (She still lives in her home.) And that has so many challenges, including fighting off relatives who want to visit her and yet they don't believe in wearing masks.
I truly believe if we had a president/government who back in, say, April, listened to doctors and scientists and made wearing masks a national mandate for six weeks, a government that invested millions into a media campaign explaining why it was important, we wouldn't be here, eight months later.

It's really not that much bigger than politics or mask wearing, IMO. I'm curious, @UPChip, what else do you think is at fault?

 

"At fault" isn't really what I'm trying to determine. The part that I've never really heard explained adequately (for me) is why, even eight months in, our array of options to do something about this is still so poor. I'm thinking less in terms of vaccines and more in terms of useful treatments and other medical innovations. At present, all I've seen in the way of treatments are things like remdesivir that reduce critical cases to bad ones which does something to reduce mortality but nothing for public health. And now I'm reading people downplaying the usefulness of a vaccine, even.

I'm reminded of a line from Mr. Holland's Opus in which the title character screams at William H. Macy, "Your best isn't good enough!" The scientific and medical research community's best is not good enough right now and it really hasn't been at any point in this crisis. It appears that "we're doing the best we can, keep hiding in your apartment for another six months of a Minnesota winter" is the best they can offer and it's not good enough for anybody.

I wholeheartedly believe the Trump administration's handling of this has been a clusterfuck on every level, but I also posit that structurally, even a best case scenario would have probably involved maybe dropping a zero off those death and case numbers. And 25,000 dead is still a pretty big crisis and a pretty big tragedy. We're a big country with a bunch of ports of entry and major cities. Even if we'd pulled a New Zealand, all we need is one guy on the Rome-to-La Guardia flight and we're back at it again. My guess is things would look like continental Europe appeared to over the last six months. The Germans did all sorts of things properly, and guess what, you still aren't going to a live Bundesliga match any time soon. So as much as I want to kick an anti-masker in the nuts (one of them got a former colleague sick at his work, knocking him out for two weeks and his wife [also a former colleague] spent most of last week in the hospital) and scream at the college kids going from party to party, all of this is defense. Masks, PPE, lockdowns, it's all defense. Social distancing and an "abundance of caution" has not killed a single individual virus. Compliance in my area has been, I'd say, pretty good, but the weather has been shitty for most of the last two weeks. I can't scold the weather, especially since it's going to be even worse than this here for the next four months.

I'm not going to sit here and tell you that I think anything I'm saying makes better than middle-school level sense. What I'm saying is the last time I got to have a conversation with an actual human being lasting longer than five minutes was about 2 1/2 weeks ago. I probably should have taken this to the "Take care of yourself" thread. All I'm saying is there is something uniquely defeating to know that things suck, they're not getting better and worst of all, no one has the time or attention to address the way this crisis is treating you because they're treating people who are having real acute problems.

 

Sometimes what history asks of us is the courage to be patient.

 

We really haven't done what we've needed to do. Even during the spring shutdowns, people were getting together. Hubby and I went fishing one day and there were 10 people in a small bait shop with no masks. Obviously, you don't need one on the water, but in that shop? I walked in and out. But we were doing enough to keep people out the hospitals, which was the point. Now? Schools are in session, college kids are together whether or not they're actually in class, crowds in football stadiums (mostly the south), bars and restaurants open with people shoulder to shoulder, and hospital beds are filling up. We haven't done the work and a good chunk of the people don't want to. I've said this before, but I mean it. Millions of Americans will be shocked when, after the election, the virus doesn't vanish because they think it's all Democratic lies.

 

I think the reaction will be the opposite (accompanying my prediction of Dems promoting any good news and GOPers being the gloom-and-doomers).

GOPers will scream, "See, the damn thing isn't going away with YOUR guy in charge, either!"

 

No matter who wins on Tuesday, the virus will be a catastrophe through the holidays, so bad a New Year's lockdown will become a necessity. That doesn't mean it'll happen, just that it will need to.

 

So what exactly constitutes a "New Year's lockdown"?

Do we think closing Joe's Shoe Repair --- and other uncrowded small businesses following mask guidelines that have nothing to do with virus spread --- is going to solve anything? Are we going to make that mistake again?

 

No, but big offices will close, masks will be mandated, with fines for noncompliance, and bars and restaurants will be closed until spring. The problem for Joe's Shoe Repair will be customers voluntarily abandoning any contact with others they can possibly avoid, that is, total lack of demand.

 

I guess the customers will decide that. I feel absolutely zero threat popping into any business following mask guidelines for a few minutes.

My area of the country --- and by extension, my stores --- are not people standing shoulder-to-shoulder, so your mileage may vary.