Stay Safe Everyone!

[Sonic Youth]

Maybe it's just my view from The Epicenter, but the idea of "going back to normal" seems pure fantasy -- I can't imagine when any of us will feel comfortable once again going to a movie or restaurant. (Hell, when I see people in an old movie shake hands, I'm screaming at them to stop before they die.) I recognize the Trump folks' desperation to do something to revive the economy -- the status quo is sure electoral poison (more on which soon in the Campaign 2020 thread) -- but there's nothing you can do to outspin a pandemic. Some red states will no doubt follow the Trump Piper's lead, but 1) they represent so small a percentage of national economic power as to have no impact on the overall picture and 2) they'll likely bring about more deaths, which will make the economic situation worse in the long run.

Not only that, but being mostly male, older and lower-middle class, the Trump voter is maybe the most vulnerable voting demographic.

I know the protests are bogus. (One protest was funded by the DeVos family, and for a group of alleged small business owners, there are an awful lot of gray-heads among them.) But there are hundreds of thousands of newly unemployed people who were told early on - remember this? - that a lockdown of two weeks, maybe four at most, would be enough to defeat the spread, and are now told this could go on through the summer and the food supply chains are in peril. I think the country's done a really good job in following the lockdown guidelines for the most part. But people will be at their wits end soon. Psychologically and economically, we can't sustain this way of life for much longer. It's inevitable that even the hardest hit regions are going to open back up in 60 days if not 30.

also find it VERY hard to believe the 60,000 death estimate everyone (including my trusted fellow Regis-alumnus Dr. Fauci) was tossing around last week. We're at 36,000 already, with only NY showing any signs of leveling (at a scary-high number), and many places still on the rise. How long before that model gets adjusted upward?

I think the number is lowball, but not ridiculously so. I'd guess more around 80-90 thousand by summer's end, which is more optimistic than the half-a-million I was thinking about a month ago.

And I'm talking about projected mass deaths like they were box office predictions. Quite a new normal we've got here.

[Big Magilla]

Big Magilla wrote
As the editor of our 145 home community newspaper, I have to include the names of people who have died since the last paper. We usually go months without a death, which has never been more than one or two at a time. As of today, three people have died within the last three weeks, two of them today, although none from the coronavirus unless that was an added factor they're not talking about.

I'm so sorry, Magilla.

I spoke too soon. I just learned that the third death was from the coronavirus picked up in a nursing home in Hillsborough, New Jersey. Man in his mid to late 80s three days ago. His wife still doesn't know when the funeral will be. All she knows is that the coffin must be closed.

I first of the three also died in a New Jersey nursing home. He was born the same day as my father, dying three days before his 99th birthday.

The other one was a 90-year-old lady who died peacefully in her home surrounded by her family. No coronavirus there.

[Mister Tee]

I haven't really weighed in because, well, there's not much new to say. The only thing that distinguishes one day from another is what progress I make on my script, who I hear from/talk to, what meals I plan/eat, and what movie or TV I consume in the evening. And, I suppose, which idiotic pronouncement emanates from the buffoon we're stuck with till (please, only) next January 20th.

A friend's mother-in-law died the other day. She's in her mid-90s and has been fading for some time, but it was corona (picked up in her NJ nursing home) that pushed her over the edge. Two long-time friends, a couple, are both infected, he the worse for it with a 103-degree fever at last report. I performed a corporal act of mercy for them the other day, picking up a prescription the drugstore refused to deliver. It felt eerie visiting CVS: the pharmacy area had plastic sheeting separating customers from staff, like what you used to see only in sci-fi movies. NY as a whole is still Chernobyl-ly desolate -- I'm limiting myself to roughly one shopping trip a week. Surgical masks have been prominent for weeks, but are now ubiquitous.

Maybe it's just my view from The Epicenter, but the idea of "going back to normal" seems pure fantasy -- I can't imagine when any of us will feel comfortable once again going to a movie or restaurant. (Hell, when I see people in an old movie shake hands, I'm screaming at them to stop before they die.) I recognize the Trump folks' desperation to do something to revive the economy -- the status quo is sure electoral poison (more on which soon in the Campaign 2020 thread) -- but there's nothing you can do to outspin a pandemic. Some red states will no doubt follow the Trump Piper's lead, but 1) they represent so small a percentage of national economic power as to have no impact on the overall picture and 2) they'll likely bring about more deaths, which will make the economic situation worse in the long run.

I also find it VERY hard to believe the 60,000 death estimate everyone (including my trusted fellow Regis-alumnus Dr. Fauci) was tossing around last week. We're at 36,000 already, with only NY showing any signs of leveling (at a scary-high number), and many places still on the rise. How long before that model gets adjusted upward?

[Sonic Youth]

Covid-19 has finally penetrated my circle of friends. Someone I’ve known for over ten years just lost his father to the virus. This was a nursing home situation, and he had been suffering from Alzheimer’s as well. I don’t know the full details, but I’ve heard so many stories of people dying virtually alone with no family members aloud to be nearby, and I assume this was no different. Such a cruel way to go.

ETA: And I just learned a Facebook friend who I like but know hardly at all has a grandmother who also hospitalized with COVID-19 and full-blown pneumonia. Although quite elderly, she fully recovered and was released. I just saw a video of her getting a round of applause from the hospital staff as they wheeled her to the exit.

[Precious Doll]

Australia is to remain in 'lockdown' for another four weeks.

Thankfully the number of cases is declining faster than anybody had hoped for and testing criteria dramatically expanded - anybody with a cough, fever or running a fever is strongly encouraged to get tested. Random testing in 'hot spots' are due to start in a couple of days as well.

Whilst the Government has explicitly stated this they are striving for elimination of the virus. They won't come out and say it directly which is understandable because that goal cannot be guaranteed. International borders are to remain closed indefinitely except for air and sea freight. Australians are still returning home from four key destinations only (London, LA, Hong Kong & Auckland) and on arrival are shuttled off to hotels where they remain under police and army guard for 14 days quarantine - home quarantine proved infective because a small portion of people did not comply. These flight cease in two weeks though the Government will try to repatriate citizens after that time.

Though things may go back to some degree of 'normality' in a few months it's never going to be the same and fighting an invisible enemy is the hardest fight of all. Two outbreaks have occurred in the last week, one in an aged care facility in Sydney and another in a hospital in north west Tasmania that increased the Tasmanian cases by one third. I think all up these two outbreaks are responsible for about 80 cases in total.

I must say I have to give the Governments (federal, state and territory) full credit for their handling of the crisis. Despite all the cutbacks over the years they have responded effectively but the was a degree of luck. The devastating bushfires of last year helped keep tourists away from the country and most of our cases have been returning travellers. And despite Government cutbacks to public services over the decades the country has always been anal in relation to bio-security which has proven invaluable. Tracking and tracing of positive people has proven very effective to date.

The population is not allowed to leave their homes unless it is for work, school, medical appointments, shopping, pet related care, exercising, compassionate purposes etc. If one is caught out in the street, evening sitting on a park bench without an acceptable reason fines of over $1,000 are applied. Ditto no driving unless it is for the reasons above. Police are pulling cars over and giving fines to people without a reasonable excuse for driving around. No groups of people allowed (except if you all live in the one house) and no visiting other people - dinner parties are banned. Most State borders have been shut down, no travelling allowed, beaches are all closed, etc. Very police state but the vast majority of people accept this because the alternative is not palatable.

It's amazing how quickly one adapts to a new way of life though my partner is sick of cooking every night (we used to eat out three nights a week) and I'm sick of loading the dish washer every night as well and it is a bit sad when the highlight of the week is going out grocery shopping.

But watching all this unfold is the low point of my life. I've known all my adult life that a pandemic of this nature was always a 'when' not an 'if' but I'd always hoped we'd somehow avoid it.

[OscarGuy]

Springfield is a town of only 160,000 or so people with a metro area of half a million. Even though we have several universities, headquarters of two major national chains (Bass Pro Shops and Assemblies of God), we have been very fortunate here...our county officials called a stay at home order about two weeks before the state did. I think that may have helped keep us out of the line of fire. Weather channel's app (weird, huh?) says that my county has 78 total infections with 7 deaths. With the size of our county population (over 200,000), that's a statistically insignificant number.

None of my friends or family have gotten it. Our company, headquartered in Washington state applies most of their restrictions on us, too, so we at least get the benefit of caution. Right now, everything is business as usual, but new business applications are starting to dry up and I figure after a couple of months, we'll start seeing a shrinkage in business. I am hopeful that it won't last too long and that we won't be forced to downsize as a result.

One of my co-workers came home in tears after her first trip to a Safeway today in weeks (she lives outside of Denver). She encoutered, a man, his wife, and their daughter in the supermarket, spread out, and she only tried to bypass him and he started screaming "6 feet" at her. She's high on the anxiety prone scale, but I cannot imagine having to deal with some asshole like that in this kind of situation.

I haven't seen any of my friends here in a month now and I've tried a couple of times for us to get together digitally, but that didn't work out so well, so now I'm living a rather solitary life. It's very hard even as an introvert.

[Sabin]

Big Magilla wrote
As the editor of our 145 home community newspaper, I have to include the names of people who have died since the last paper. We usually go months without a death, which has never been more than one or two at a time. As of today, three people have died within the last three weeks, two of them today, although none from the coronavirus unless that was an added factor they're not talking about.

I'm so sorry, Magilla.

I haven't really chimed in.

I'm healthy. Everyone I know is healthy. I know a few people through people who have contracted the virus and they all describe it with comparisons to dying. We're very lucky in this country. There are indignities suffered around the world that we won't endure, so I don't know if these descriptions are fair or the moanings of privilege. Either way, I'm not eager to find out.

Slowly, friends of mine are starting to leave Los Angeles (and the entertainment industry) for wherever home is. Despite quarantine warnings, they can't afford rent and many are just ready to throw in the towel. I have one friend whom I've been waiting to see drop for some time and this afford him an opportunity. While I try to stay cognizant that I live in a bubble, my suspicion about this virus is that a lot of people are going to use it as an opportunity to reflect on their lives and what is important.

I'm quite fortunate that a year ago (almost to the week) a remarkable job fell into my lap from a college friend. I'm a full-time creative for the first time. It's been an absurd amount of work (the quality of which I'm not terribly proud of always) but high-paying and carrying me (and my sister) entirely through COVID. In terms of finances, I've never done better. My sister moved into my apartment with my roommate. It's fairly ridiculous that there's three of us living here but she cooks for me and I've never been healthier or lost more weight. I don't have a significant other but I'm surrounded by people in my apartment and have constant meetings on Zoom so I'm too busy to feel caged in. And yet, I feel constant dread about this virus and the effects of what is certain to be a fast-shrinking economy. Most conversations I had with my friends were about how everything just feels like it leapt years into the future instantly. It just feels like so many jobs are going to be done remotely now. On a personal note, I've realized I might not be able to see my grandparents in person again. They're 93 and 100 and in quarantine in their nursing home, and I might be an infection risk. But the bright side is we've put a Chromebook in there that has a FaceTime on pretty much all the time, so we can join in whenever we want to say hi. We're actually more in touch now than ever.

There are times where my anxiety about Coronavirus feels like my anxiety of an uncertain future. As a child of the 80's and the 90's, I grew up hopeful, looking to a future of promise and progress. And it's been one set-back after another. One hole to dig out of after another. 9/11, the War in Iraq, The Great Recession, Trump. It's felt like through all these things, our collective priorities have been just doing whatever it takes to get through these things. I know it's early still but I fear the aftershocks of the Coronavirus in every industry. We're twenty years into the new millennium and where's that feeling of promise and progress? I certainly don't have any anymore. The future looks like a bummer with iPhones.

[Big Magilla]

As the editor of our 145 home community newspaper, I have to include the names of people who have died since the last paper. We usually go months without a death, which has never been more than one or two at a time. As of today, three people have died within the last three weeks, two of them today, although none from the coronavirus unless that was an added factor they're not talking about.

Within this period, we also lost Bob DiGrigoli, a local craftsman with some pretty impressive film and TV credits, who worked closely with the local historical society. He was 66.

Last Thursday, my 63-year-old brother who walks 3.2 miles per day in upstate New York, suffered chest pains and shortness of breath and was driven to the hospital an hour away by his wife, a retired supervising psychiatric and teaching nurse, in a developing snowstorm. She was not allowed in the hospital, and had to wait in her car for them to call. It turned out he had suffered a coronary embolism from DVT (deep vein thrombosis), unrelated to the virus, of which he was unaware. They moved him to another hospital, another mile away in Rochester. He was in ICU for a couple days, then a semi-private room, and was released yesterday into the custody of his wife because of her nursing background.

[Sonic Youth]

We're fine, and everyone I know is fine. A second friend of mine came down with a fever and sickness and was tested at the hospital. She also came up negative for COVID-19. Both health-wise and economically, no one in our family has been touched by this, and we really are blessed. I'm more optimistic than ever that we'll be able to avoid catching the virus. But I'm really sad for my daughter, who must be deprived of many things she knows and loves to do. I'm homeschooling her and she pretty much resents it because she misses school and her friends. Officially, school is supposed to reopen on the first week of May, but I think we all know that ain't happening. The remainder of the school year has essentially bitten the dust, and the same goes for any summer activities as well. Fortunately, her teacher has been wonderful keeping in touch with all the kids. Again, I only have mundane things to report and I hope it stays that way.

[mlrg]

Shout out to everyone!

Everyone doing ok?

With me and my family everyone is doing fine

[Big Magilla]

Not so fast.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/12/heal ... trump.html

[Big Magilla]

Trump's and his allies' connections to Sanofi go beyond a single mutual fund investment, but, yeah, the other reason is certainly there.

Hospitals are testing the drug on patients that otherwise may have no hope but it is not something people should be taking on their own as a precaution without FDA approval as glorious leader suggested yesterday.

https://www.ibtimes.com/donald-trump-al ... rt-2954707

[dws1982]

He's too busy pushing that malaria drug he has stock in.

You do realize that his financial stake in Sanofi is through a mutual fund, not through direct stock ownership? His actual financial stake in Sanofi is reported to be around $450. If you're wanting to make big profits off of something and you only have a small amount invested through a mutual fund, you're going about it the wrong way. I'm no fan of Trump, but this theory is a big stretch. The better explanation is that he wants a quick, easy fix, because he wants the economy to go back to normal as soon as possible. He wants to be right, and he wants to point back and say that he was the one who was advocating it all along.

[Big Magilla]

He's too busy pushing that malaria drug he has stock in.

[OscarGuy]

Maybe the president should make that one of the things that suppliers are supposed to make, but he won't ask them for. 3M can give the toilet paper manufacturers some tips, I'm sure.