Stay Safe Everyone!

[danfrank]

Then I proceeded to Walmart

!!!

Friends don't let friends shop at Walmart: https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/walmar ... d-company/

[Big Magilla]

Yesterday, I checked to see if my six-month appointment with my doctor was still on for next Monday. It is, so today being the only day this week in which we're not supposed get heavy rains, I fasted in order to do bloodwork this morning, not knowing at all what to expect.

I have my blood taken at the Urgent Care facility that is affiliated with my doctor. It's closer and quicker than going to the hospital. It opens at 8 a.m. I left the house around ten to 8, knowing there wouldn't be too much traffic to contend with. About hallway there, I realized I had forgotten my paperwork so back I went to retrieve it. I must arrived at the Urgent Care around 8:15. It was eerie. There were signs on the outside door not to enter if you were sick, to return to your car and call them and they would diagnose you over the phone. I used a spare handkerchief to open both the outside door and the inner door to the walk-in side of the facility. There were only three or four chairs you could sit on, others had notes on them saying they were off-limits due to social distancing. The receptionist greeted me, asked if I was sick, I said no, that I was there for bloodwork. She opened the partition just wide enough for me to hand her the script sideways.

Another receptionist, perhaps a doctor or nurse (I couldn't tell which) then came out to sit and take calls from sick people, and I was again asked if I were sick. I said no. I listened to her asking all the questions people should already know the answer to in order to discourage them from asking to take the coronavirus test which you can only get at the hospital if you have fever, are coughing and have shortness of breath.

Then the blood taking nurse, not the regular one, but one from the hospital, came out and again asked if I were sick. Again, I said no.

The blood taking was itself odd. Instead of attaching the vials to the needle as they usually do, they had a long tube that took the blood from my arm to the vials about six inches away. I thanked her for taking my blood, and used the spare handkerchief to open the three doors that led to the street.

Then I proceeded to Walmart, which proved to be a pleasant surprise. They didn't have everything, but had what I wanted, although I forgot to pick up ketchup but can live without it for however long I need to.

A week ago, Walmart had no eggs, now they had several choices. I picked up a carton of 18 with an expiration date sometime in May. I couldn't get a large box of Bisquick, but I was able to get a couple of small boxes and a big carton of fresh blueberries. Best of all, I was able to get two boxes of Entenmann's hot cross buns! It's the first time I've seen them in Walmart's in several years!

So, what is this idiot governor of Texas doing, saying he agrees with Trump that we need to end isolation and get back to business by next week, saying this is an opportunity for seniors to sacrifice to keep the country intact for their grandchildren. In other words, we should all get sick and die of this thing, right?

[Precious Doll]

I really don't think most Governments know what to do and having one eye on the economy isn't helping.

A whole bunch of things closed in Australia on Monday - restaurants, cafes, cinemas, gyms, places of worship etc and from midnight on Wednesday more things are closing. Retail remains open but a growing number of shops are closing because people aren't spending. By next Monday up to two million people will have lost their jobs - the images of people lining up for Government benefits is very upsetting. Australians have also been banned from leaving the country because people were still leaving for holidays despite Government advice not to travel. Incoming flights stop from next Tuesday though ships and planes related to freight and trade will still be permitted.

Also, no parties, barbecues, dinner parties. Funerals to be capped at 10 people and weddings to be capped at 5 (including the celebrant).

Australians trapped overseas (of which there are hundreds of thousands) have basically been told not to rely on repatriation by the Australia Government as overseas diplomats scramble to get home. Most look like they'll be stuck just as foreign nationals will be stuck in Australia if they can't get a flight out by next Tuesday. And there are something like over one million of them. The Government is granting bridging visas to foreign residents and they will need to provide them with income support.

More than half of the coronavirus cases in Australia are from returning residents from overseas with people returning from the US, Italy and UK being the highest number. Also, our idiot State Government let a cruise ship disembark in Sydney last week and since then 133 people from the ship have tested positive for the coronavirus. Thankfully, our Government is very good at tracking, tracing and isolating people but we do have about 78 people whose cause of infection has not been about to be tracked to a returning resident or a known infected person. The State Governments are also doing spot checks on people who are in home quarantine due to returning from overseas and heavy fines apply if there are found to be not complying.

With things rapidly changing I would not at all except a complete lockdown by the start of next week. I've left the house every day but its to do things that I have to do (some grocery shopping and check on my mother). To be honest I'm sick of my 'new life' which though shared by much of the worlds population doesn't make it any easier to accept.

When this is all over Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and other members of the WHO should be placed on trial for mass murder. Slow to response, reluctant to call what was about to unfold. For fucks sake I knew on 23 January what was going to happen both health wise and economically in the blink of an eye when China placed Wuhan in lockdown!

I don't think in my entire life I've been as furious as I am with Ghebreyesus and the WHO. I can pretty much forgive anything because we are all flawed but what is happening is unforgivable.

[Heksagon]

I'm more than a little annoyed by how slow the Western countries have been at reacting to this. I never had a very high opinion of the health care authorities in here, but I didn't imagine they were this bad. They either imagined that this is just a regular flu virus, or that it would be trivial to track and isolate the infected people, and they were very slow at revising that view even in face of mounting evidence. They learned nothing from the experience in China and Korea, and were very slow to learn what was happening in Italy.

I no longer wonder why we're so slow at reacting to climate change after following this. The same pattern of disbelief and not acting until it gets acute was characteristic of the response to the last financial crisis as well.

We're lucky that our own country is so remote and the virus got here later than most of Europe, since our own notoriously inefficient government and inept health care authorities are particularly slow at taking necessary action. We still haven't closed even the restaurants and the authorities are not even talking about curfew yet. USA was slow to wake up to this, but at least they're reacting aggressively now.

[OscarGuy]

Same. My mother refuses to stop doing her charity work. It's noble of her, but with her underlying health problems, it could be quite devastating. Nothing short of a state order to shelter in place will get her to stop.

[mlrg]

From a sociological point of view it’s very interesting to note that some of the comments, beliefs, behaviors, etc, from people living in the USA about the disease itself is very similar to the ones we were having over here about a month ago.

It's not only interesting, it's scary. It's not just young people who are being cavalier about it. The old people in my community are just as bad, having dinner parties in the clubhouse, which should be closed for the duration, and gatherings in each other's homes in lieu of planned dinners out. One of the contributors to the monthly newspaper that I'm the editor of, took a picture of three residents, one man and two women, for an upcoming article focusing on the three who will turn 90 this year. My response that I hoped it wouldn't be their "last picture" didn't go over very well.

The community was in shock last night when one of the older, sicker residents was taken away in an ambulance, a frequent occurrence here but the first time the attendants wore protective masks. Maybe it's finally sinking in.

We have exactly the same problem with older people over here. Both my parents have passed away but all of my friends and co workers with living parents are complaining about the same: they just can’t get their parents to stay home.

[Big Magilla]

From a sociological point of view it’s very interesting to note that some of the comments, beliefs, behaviors, etc, from people living in the USA about the disease itself is very similar to the ones we were having over here about a month ago.

It's not only interesting, it's scary. It's not just young people who are being cavalier about it. The old people in my community are just as bad, having dinner parties in the clubhouse, which should be closed for the duration, and gatherings in each other's homes in lieu of planned dinners out. One of the contributors to the monthly newspaper that I'm the editor of, took a picture of three residents, one man and two women, for an upcoming article focusing on the three who will turn 90 this year. My response that I hoped it wouldn't be their "last picture" didn't go over very well.

The community was in shock last night when one of the older, sicker residents was taken away in an ambulance, a frequent occurrence here but the first time the attendants wore protective masks. Maybe it's finally sinking in.

[mlrg]

From a sociological point of view it’s very interesting to note that some of the comments, beliefs, behaviors, etc, from people living in the USA about the disease itself is very similar to the ones we were having over here about a month ago.

[Precious Doll]

I don't think anyone knows the long term ramifications of this thing. They're saying that x-rays show major scarring of lungs in previously healthy individuals. That may not bring immediate health problems, but it could lead to shorter life spans for those affected.

Thats all very troubling. Some of those cases have also been children with no symptoms.

Also, being a coronavirus it is unlikely and unknown that people who do get infected will be immune for life or only a limited time. The four existing coronavirus' that have been around for decades and gives us all colds do not give lifetime immunity for example. Immunity only lasts anywhere between a few weeks and a couple of years if you are lucky. Hence, why we get so many colds over our lifespans rather than just four.

This also makes the 'herd immunity' that The Netherlands is adopting and the U.K. were going to until they were talked out of it is such a dangerous proposal. Locking down for a period of time, ramping up testing and restricting the movement of people appear to be the only viable options at this time.

[Sonic Youth]

Here is someone's comment on FB who desribes being infected in the USA.

Just self isolate when the symptoms arrive. I've had covid 19 for this last week along with my 11 yr old son. We're fine. Just extreme fatigue, mild fever and very mild flu symptoms. For most people this is not life threatening at all. Fear is worse than the reality for most, unless you have more serious underlying medical conditions. Keep well and safe everyone.

LOTS of people have more serious underlying medical conditions! Some don't even know they have them. (The word, btw, is "comorbidities" which I think we all learned a few days ago.) I've seen accounts of more severe (if non-life threatening) cases in younger people, and it's no walk in the park.

And, btw, you're NOT supposed to "self isolate when the symptoms arrive". You're supposed to be self-isolating already. I don't know how long ago she started having symptoms, but it should be clear to everyone now that just because you have no symptoms it doesn't mean you don't have the virus.... and that you're not spreading it around if you do have it.

[Big Magilla]

I don't think anyone knows the long term ramifications of this thing. They're saying that x-rays show major scarring of lungs in previously healthy individuals. That may not bring immediate health problems, but it could lead to shorter life spans for those affected.

[Reza]

Here is someone's comment on FB who desribes being infected in the USA.

Just self isolate when the symptoms arrive. I've had covid 19 for this last week along with my 11 yr old son. We're fine. Just extreme fatigue, mild fever and very mild flu symptoms. For most people this is not life threatening at all. Fear is worse than the reality for most, unless you have more serious underlying medical conditions. Keep well and safe everyone.

[Precious Doll]

The fact that climate change is slowed down while everyone stays home is a good sign but it has to be sustained. Once the world is on the move again, pollution will increase.

Agreed and probably at a faster pace to make up for lost time. If anything coronavirus may buy the planet a couple of years but that's it.

This is all so so depressing on so many levels. I'm finding hard to concentrate when watching films at home (at least at the cinema I'm not looking at my mobile phone) so I'll have to leave it in another room. I started getting depressed about this on 23 January and whilst I've had some good days I've tendered to have more bad days I'm afraid. Overall I feel like I'm living in a bad dream that could turn into a nightmare at any time.

I suppose everybody is getting their local and international updates for various sources but I highly recommend from an international level the Live Blog on The Guardian website (all their websites International, US, UK & Australia) carry the same 24 hours rolling global news - its depressing stuff but gives a sense of what is happening worldwide. Also Wikipedia's coronavirus outbreak page is useful https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019–20_c ... s_pandemic (can't get the link to work properly but if you copy and paste it into a new webpage you should be right).

Also, if you key in coronavirus with a country of our choice on the search facility on Wikipedia you can get a detailed history of the diseases spread for that respective country.

Also Dr. John Campbell from the UK does daily updates on the virus and they are worth viewing. His pretty much on the mark in general but they are extremely depressing viewing.

[Big Magilla]

The fact that climate change is slowed down while everyone stays home is a good sign but it has to be sustained. Once the world is on the move again, pollution will increase.

[anonymous1980]

I don't think life will ever go back to what it was and when you throw climate change into the mix it's a very bleak future.

Au contraire. According to quite a number of articles, the coronavirus pandemic is actually SLOWING DOWN climate change at least temporarily. I think it bought humanity some time.

Venice canals are now clear enough to see fish.

Dolphins and swans also return.

Coronavirus reduced China's CO2 emissions by a quarter.