We would have to give Medicare or subsidize ACA policies down to that age to go with it. Many people work (or try to work) until Medicare age in order to keep medical insurance coverage that would otherwise be quite expensive for someone age 60-64 (and if ACA is repealed by court case or whatever, many people age 60-64 would have pre-existing conditions that would prevent them from buying individual policies at any price).
@emilybee. I still follow the guidelines more carefully than most. I’ve had no one in my home except H who lives here. I wear my mask and use hand sanitizer when I enter or leave a store.
I’d add that I have been distancing since March 9. the day Indian Wells was cancelled. That shook me up. I haven’t attended any gatherings of any sort since then. I’ve cancelled my Ds visit. I haven’t seen her since September. I haven’t visited my son. I cancelled the trip to see my 94 year old father. So perhaps because of all this isolating I am chafing more at certain guidelines which strike me as doing little or nothing to curb the pandemic. I am complying though.
But I am no longer afraid. I don’t have the anxiety I had at the beginning of all this.
The area I was mentioning is a very high net worth and expensive housing area. Nursing home workers could not afford to live there.
My neighbor had an appointment today. They didn’t polish her teeth, only clean.
However, it would be better to save the public condemnation for acts that are actually risky to other people, rather than those which are technically illegal but not significantly risky in the way that the law was meant to prevent (like @apprenticeprof 's example). Or acts that increase the risk to others even if they may not be technically illegal, like going around spitting on other people’s house doorknobs or car door handles or bicycle handlebar grips.
From a good opinion piece about communicating plans for going forward (presuming, I suppose, that your state has a plan for going forward):
I like this idea of harm reduction and communicating levels of dangerousness. socializing with another couple, or your own child’s family, who have been isolating for two months, is a lot less dangerous than having a birthday party with fifty people. Going to the grocery store, masked, with masked employees, is a lot less dangerous than going to a crowded protest where people are shoulder to shoulder and unmasked. Going for a bike ride with a friend is a lot less dangerous than a cross-country running team running in a pack.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/14/opinion/coronavirus-communication.html
I can see engineers or numbers geeks following a system like that, but not the vast majority of people.
Nor, apparently, assuming reckless behavior where it doesn’t exist, and condemning people for that too.
A group of ladies was having lunch in the park today, sitting at the picnic tables - 2 to a table, at opposite corners. Not one of them was under 60. Given the situation in this area they probably were not a danger to me or each other, and I hope they enjoyed the lunch. The playground and restrooms are still closed at the park.
We may have another cul-de-sac happy hour, distanced.
Restaurants open for limited inside dining Monday, I don’t think we’re jumping the gun too much.
That’s the update from this part of Lake Wobegon.
I pitched in & worked a carry out shift at the restaurant.
The first night was all regular customers so I got a chance to do an informal survey over the phone when they placed their order.
Most would come in for a drink at our bar, maybe dinner at the bar, because they “know” us and only if it wasn’t crowded.
I was disappointed the chef was not making himself and his crew wear masks in the BOH.
We wore masks in the FOH.
One elderly customer said he and his GF were considering driving up to Wisconsin because they miss dining out so much. That surprised me.
Some guests walked inside the restaurant to pick up just because they wanted to say hi. It’s easy to keep distance. The empty dining room seems huge now.
When Italy was in their roughest stage, we heard nothing about kidneys, cardiac myopathy, strokes, and now kids with Kawasaki. I wonder if it was so bad in Italy that they had no opportunity to explore these effects, did not even have the chance to notice them. I think 100 kids in NYC is a small percentage, so the actual numbers of kids, at a similar percentage in Italy would have been a small number and could have gone totally unnoticed, never tested?
There are many photographs in news media today of unmasked people crowded into bars last night here in Wisconsin.
Was this posted? Whiltleblower’s warning before congress-we have no plan, no one coordinating things, and are looking at a very dark 2021 with lots of deaths and bad stuff. Also, no one listened to expert warning back in January, etc.
Actually, the link between Kawasaki in children and COVID was made in Italy. Yes, they’ve had kids with an illness that resembles Kawasaki – a 30% increase in it as compared to pre-Covid. There’s plenty reporting about it.
It’s in the national news too.
Re dentists: This Week in Virology podcast episode 611 speaks to dentistry, I won’t be going in anytime soon.
@apprenticeprof your post reflects my views.
Here we are allowed to walk on the beach but not sit. Figure the science behind that one.
I went to a park today that has thousands of acres. I was the only person there. Yet I am supposed to wear a mask.
People who know they are Covid positive face no penalty for leaving quarantine but a surfer by himself got arrested.
Covid positive elderly are admitted to nursing homes by state order which subjects the rest of the residents to contamination and death.
So much makes no common sense.
@Marilyn yikes about the communication from your dental office. We have had exactly the opposite experience. I go to both a periodontist and my regular dentist for cleanings. Both offices have been in very good contact with patients.
I have a perio cleaning on June 1, which is the first day they are open. It was originally scheduled for April. Then May. Now June. Each month, I got a phone call from their office or the person who does my teeth. They were very well informed and let me know what to expect. And also what my responsibilities were in terms of knowing if I shouldn’t come. In addition, they have sent out a monthly email blast giving updates on the ADA position statements and the state guidelines. This is a smaller practice, with never more than 3 or 4 patients in the office.
My regular dentist office is also opening next Wednesday, with very limited appointments. It’s a large practice so they need to cut the number they see. My next appointment with them isn’t until late July, and I’m pretty flexible with my ability to come. The know that. They have sent very detailed emails every couple of weeks. A few weeks ago, they also did a survey of the patients asking what kinds of dental care folks were willing to come to.
In both cases, the hygiene rooms are ones with walls to the ceilings…not just partitions.
The biggest issue these folks state they have is getting sufficient PPE to do their jobs.
My understanding is that the CDC still hasn’t given guidance for what dentists should be doing to protect themselves, their staff, and their patients. DH is a retired dentist and advised his Sis this week to postpone her D’s upcoming appt.
I also read in a CT paper earlier this week that hygienists are very concerned about going back to work. That’s understandable.
How/why would you wear a mask in a bar? Seriously.
As to the whistle blower - every disgruntled employee ever feels like they should have been listened to, and everything would have been ok. In years of management when I had to look into the background of those claims, I never found one where the person wasn’t, well, a little delusional.
Maybe Dr. Bright is the rare exception, but this is probably not the forum to argue the pros and cons. He got to make his case to Congress today, you can go to other forums if you want to break down and debate his specific claims and agency counter-claims.
Most likely to reduce chances of large groups of people congregating and not maintaining social distancing.